Lee Judge of "The Kansas City Star" writes a blog-ish type online section of the paper called "Judging the Royals." It gets updated daily or so. No journalist whose last name is "Judge" should allow an opportunity to go by without inserting his/her last name into the title of his column. So Judge wrote his opinion on the subject of Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce Harper, which again, is a great metaphor for what the Nationals team has been doing all year to Harper. Of course, Judge's take on Harper was pretty hot and it drew some attention, which I am sure was by pure coincidence. This then gave the editor of the "Star" a chance to publicly comment on the attention this post by Judge received. So now Judge gave an opinion and an editor is commenting on that opinion. This is how you make yourself a part of the story. Give an opinion, then comment on your own opinion and the attention it receives. ESPN would be proud.
"Hey, look at the attention we received for something one of our columnists wrote!"
Then, OF COURSE, Judge had to address his previous comments in his next "Judging the Royals" blog-ish post. I mean, he would be remiss if he didn't address the story he had created. Now Judge is commenting on his comments about a story. I may have missed it, but I'm surprised an editor didn't then comment on Judge's comments about his comments about the story. Really, he tried to explain himself at more length, because any chance to get more attention for the "Star" (which I do understand by the way) can not be passed up. People are paying attention now to what he's said and discussing his opinion. He's become part of the story. That's how it goes.
I'll start first with the original post that asks if Jonathan Papelbon should have choked Bryce Harper. Considering choking seems like an extreme act, I would go with "no," but Judge takes a more nuanced view. Much like a nagging wife, sometimes a person is just asking to get choked a little bit. Bryce Harper is one of these people begging to be choked.
(By the way, I am not a Bryce Harper fan because I don't like the Nationals. I'm sure I've wanted to metaphorically choke him at some point, but never literally)
I don’t know Bryce Harper from Adam,
"I know nothing about this person...but I'm going to go ahead and say that my perception based on watching him play a sport is probably 100% accurate. I mean, I'm advocating for him to get choked by a teammate. How could I be wrong?"
but he certainly seems like a young man who needs an attitude adjustment.
It's a good thing Lee Judge isn't a policeman.
"I don't know this kid standing on the corner, but he looks like he is up to no good. I'm going to go ahead and arrest him, perhaps shoot him if he insists too intently he's done nothing wrong."
I feel bad for the defendant if Judge is ever on a jury. And yes, I have no doubt he would write a blog post about his jury experience and call it "Judge and Jury."
"I don't know this kid who is on trial, but he has hair longer than I'd like to see on a young man. Plus, he just looks like he needs an attitude adjustment. I've heard the evidence against him, which was all unpersuasive, but my intuition has never been wrong. I say convict him."
Unfortunately he was choked by the wrong guy in the wrong place.
Bryce Harper needed to be choked, but the wrong person choked him. Much like a disobedient woman MUST be choked by her husband and only her husband, this is a very strict rule with no exceptions, Bryce Harper must be choked by another position player. It's only right. If Lee Judge sees a child being hit in the head with a baseball bat, he will immediately stop and make sure the person doing the hitting is the parent. If so, carry on. If not, this isn't right and he is not afraid to be the hero and do something about it.
In
baseball culture, pitchers — especially relievers — do not get to
criticize position players for lack of hustle.
So the choking was fine, but the wrong person choked Harper. I can't see how this doesn't make sense.
So if you spend a fair amount of time sitting in the shade eating
popsicles, you don’t get to criticize position players for failing to
run out a fly ball.
In fact, if the world were fair then someone would choke Jonathan Papelbon for choking Bryce Harper. It just has to be a position player or starting pitcher who chokes Papelbon though, because another reliever doesn't get to criticize Papelbon for choking Bryce Harper.
And I hope you realize the irony of a sportswriter, a person who works hard but literally could spend an entire baseball game eating popsicles in the shade, commenting on which baseball players can and can not choke Bryce Harper based on whether that player can eat a popsicle in the shade during a game.
The second problem was location: if you want
to choke Bryce Harper —
I know what Judge is going to say. Do it in private. Beat your loved ones, commit senseless violence in life to anyone you know or work with, but for God's sake keep it private.
and I suspect if you played with him, you might —
This suspicion being based on the fact that Lee Judge has already stated he in no way knows Bryce Harper. It's a strong take for someone who doesn't know Bryce Harper at all.
ask him to come up the tunnel and then choke him.
You don’t do it in the dugout for everyone in the world to see; you keep that stuff private.
To an extent, yes, but maybe just don't choke a teammate. Now I realize that teammates get in scuffles all the time. That's not really my issue here, despite the fact Judge will later try to frame that as the issue his critics have with his comments. My issue is Judge essentially is excusing Papelbon from choking Harper because he just feels like Harper is the type of person who should be choked. Therein lies my issue. Scuffles happen, I get it. Saying a guy should be choked has nothing to do with privacy though.
So you can blame either guy for what happened, but you should probably blame both.
I'm not sure Harper should be blamed for seeming like he should be choked. But hey, when could Judge's perception of an athlete ever be wrong?
Then Judge has some thoughts about a manager using his closer in a tie game on the road. I don't think I agree with these thoughts. There is some logic to his explanation as to why a manager shouldn't use his closer on the road in a tie game that I think Judge is missing.
So using a closer in a tie game at home gives you two shots to win a ball game.
But
use your closer in a tie game on the road and no matter what you’re
closer does, you’ll still need more pitching to win the game.
And you will also need more offense to win the game, as well as make sure your pitcher on the mound doesn't give up a run or else the game is over. So a good way to ensure your team gets another chance to score a run and win the game is to make sure the relief pitcher who is pitching in the bottom of the inning doesn't give up a run to lose the game. I don't think hoping an inferior relief pitcher doesn't give up a run is the best way to win a game. The assumption your team will score a run and the closer will get an opportunity to pitch seems like a faulty assumption to me. If the point is to win the game, do all you can to ensure your team gets a chance to do so. This means potentially pitching your closer on the road in a tie game.
Not using the closer in a tie game on the road is like not filling up a plane with gas before going to the next destination. I mean, you still need gas when you to your next destination, so why fill up twice?
So if you
were wondering why Ned Yost didn’t use Wade Davis on Monday night — and
apparently some fans were — if Wade had pitched a scoreless bottom of
the eleventh, someone would still have had to get three outs in the
bottom of the twelfth.
Right, but that someone would have had an opportunity to get three outs in the bottom of twelfth, while using an inferior pitcher means the game may not get to the bottom of the twelfth.
So if Miguel Almonte is going to give up a walk-off homer, you want him to do it before you waste an inning from your closer.
If ensuring the game is still tied and the Royals still have a chance to win the game is "wasting" an inning from the closer then I am all for "wasting" an inning. How is it a waste of an inning to ensure the Royals still are playing in a tie game at the top of the twelfth?
So now the editor of the "Star" comments on the attention the post received. Because, commenting on the story is a great way to keep the original post alive, right?
Twitter is the most negative corner of the Internet, in my opinion. Its
short bursts of 140 characters tend to be long on outrage, and media
sources are constant targets.
This is partly true. Sometimes a person is asking to be a target when they suggest a human being deserves to be choked though. Twitter is long on outrage, but there are ways to make yourself a target on social media and Lee Judge managed to do so.
The Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon got into
a fight in the dugout during a game Sunday. Papelbon has been suspended
for four games without pay. The Star’s Lee Judge wrote about it in a
blog post asking, “Should Jonathan Papelbon have choked Bryce Harper?”
Writing a post titled "Should Jonathan Papelbon have choked Bryce Harper?" is asking for negative feedback. It's begging for negative attention.
It
starts: “I don’t know Bryce Harper from Adam, but he certainly seems
like a young man who needs an attitude adjustment. Unfortunately he was
choked by the wrong guy in the wrong place.” An earlier version read,
“…he certainly seems like a young man who needs choking.”
The critics, such as Gawker sports commentary site Deadspin, called the post things such as “psychopathic.”
I mean writing that is a bit psychopathic. Saying a person needs to be choked sounds a little bit crazy.
I reached out to Lee, who it should be noted has also been a
political cartoonist for The Star for some 30 years. He’s well
accustomed to expressing provocative opinions, sometimes in blunt
language. His reply, in which he stands by what he wrote:
Judging
the Royals is an inside look at big league baseball; it not only deals
with how the game is played, it also reveals some of the game’s
unwritten rules. In today’s column I said that if Jonathan Papelbon
wanted to choke Bryce Harper, he should have done it in private.
Ballplayers have scuffles and arguments more often than fans know, but
those scuffles and arguments are supposed to take place out of the
public eye.
If Judge thinks the sum total of the outrage is over his comment that the scuffle should have taken place in private, then he's missing part of the point. It's the whole "I don't know Bryce Harper but think he needs an attitude adjustment and should be choked" comment that is part of the point as well.
Whether fans like it or not, baseball players throw at each other,
do takeout slides on each other and sometimes fight with each other.
When they do those things, there’s a right way to do it and that’s what
today’s column was about.
He's still not totally getting the point on why there was some outrage.
My own opinion is that a blog may be a place for frank ruminations on
these sorts of topics, and I find some of the Twitter hand-wringing disingenuously genteel.
You hear stuff far less considered than this every day on sports talk
radio and — for crying out loud — from well-known voices on Twitter
itself.
If sports talk radio is the standard by which Lee Judge's columns are held, then the bar is being lowered for him further than it should be.
"The opinions at our newspaper are consistently on-par with the opinions of the lowest common denominator of sports fans."
That's the defense. R.I.P. sports journalism.
So now Lee Judge must of course re-comment on his own story and how he "accidentally" became a part of the story.
In 2010 I was given space on this website and the freedom to cover baseball in my own way.
I’d
been hanging out with pro ballplayers for years and thought the way
they looked at the game was fascinating and I wanted to bring that point
of view to other baseball fans.
I love baseball, but I find the point of view the players have to be less than fascinating. Unwritten rules, bizarre beliefs that dinosaurs don't exist, and various other bizarre theories about life and politics...I like to watch them play the sport though. It's just I don't necessarily care about their point of view simply because I like to watch them play baseball.
We’re in a bold, new age of journalism, which is a nice way of saying
we sometimes put stuff on the web site and if an editor has time, he
might proofread your work after it’s been posted.
"We lowered our editing standards, but that's not our fault at all. It's just what we are forced to do. This is what 'the people' want in this new era of journalism. Don't blame us."
On Tuesday
morning, the freaking out began early and editors almost immediately
changed “seems like a young man who needs choking” to “seems like a
young man who needs an attitude adjustment.”
"Almost immediately." So it got fixed almost immediately, what's the big deal?
"I cursed out my co-worker, but almost immediately apologized and handed her a Kleenex. Can't we all move on?"
One night back in 2010 while I was writing a column and trying to think of another word for pitcher. I came up with the word moundsman.
That night I decided my writing was bad or sucked. I have never in my life uttered the word moundsman
and thought it was BS that I was about to write it. That night I
decided to just tell readers what I had to say in my own words, just
like if I’d met them in a bar on the way home from a game, and if you go
to the right bar, that’s entirely possible.
The defense of "shooting from the hip" or having "real talk" doesn't serve as an excuse for the comments that you are making. This is a general rule me thinks.
So when I said Bryce Harper needed choking I was probably only 97 percent serious.
It was a joke! Judge was only 97% serious. So he was pretty much entirely serious, except for when you want to criticize him, because then it was a 3% joke. I'm guessing Judge isn't a fan of Sabermetrics and numbers, but even a third-grader knows 97% of anything is pretty damn close to 100% of that thing.
But here’s why I would say that, even in jest: Bryce Harper has acted
like a jerk on a baseball field and I’m not the only one that thinks
so.
But it was 97% serious. That doesn't even come close to qualifying for "even in jest" status.
Here’s a headline from The Washington Post published last
summer: “Bryce Harper is still just 21 years old, but he needs to stop
acting like he’s 12.”
That headline appeared above a column written by Mike Wise.
Poke around the internet and it’s not hard to find stories about Harper
blowing kisses to pitchers, taking an exaggerated amount of time to jog
around the bases, getting ejected from games and yelling at opponents,
umpires and teammates.
Bryce Harper is an asshole. I can absolutely agree with this. I don't like him and I don't like the Nationals.
His defenders tend to make three points:
1.) He’s really good at baseball.
2.) He’s changed.
3.) And he’s really good at baseball.
Letting a guy get away with bad behavior just because he’s good is how Bryce Harper became Bryce Harper.
So why does Jonathan Papelbon get away with some of his behavior? What gives him the ability to be the Official Unofficial Unwritten Rules Spokesman for the Washington Nationals? Isn't he getting away with bad behavior by choking Harper?
And I gotta say that if Bryce Harper managed to provoke a teammate into
choking him in front of the whole world, he probably hasn’t change all
that much.
You gotta say it. It has to be said. Ask Stephen A. Smith about it. If you provoke someone constantly, then whatever act of violence that happens to you is most likely deserved in some way.
After my original blog was posted, it got picked up by Deadspin — the website that will tell you why your team sucks —
Yeah, but they are only being 97% serious. So it's all a joke.
I began getting emails saying I was promoting violence in the workplace
and if Papelbon had attacked Harper anywhere but a baseball field,
Papelbon could be charged with assault. Co-workers should not solve
their differences with violence.
If every NFL player who got in a scuffle with a teammate was charged with assault, you couldn’t field a team.
I personally recognize the difference in a normal work place and a work place in the athletic arena. Scuffles will happen in the athletic arena. Placing "right" and "wrong" in these situations where the person getting choked feels like a bit much, especially when you don't know for certain what happened and have no idea first hand about the personality of the two players involved.
If Papelbon putting his hands around Harper’s throat was assault — and
I’ve seen a third-grader’s birthday party with more actual violence —
What kind of third-grade birthday parties is Lee Judge attending? I'm assuming by looking at Judge that all of his children are grown by now. Does he still attend third-grade birthday parties? If so, does he attend these parties in anticipation of the violence? If so, I think that would answer a few questions I have about his take on Harper v. Papelbon.
Pretending that professional sports teams are bound by the same
restrictions that apply in an accountant’s office or a grocery store is
disingenuous; it’s just isn’t so and the people who do it are looking
for an excuse to be outraged.
You are missing the point. The point isn't really the fight. It's that a person got choked and you said he deserved to get choked without even knowing that person. Also, you indicated you had no issue with a fight, but it just should have happened in private. Fights happen. I get that. It's reasonable also to accept that fights happen, but this doesn't mean they are justified fights and it doesn't mean a person deserves to be choked.
“Retired pitcher C.J. Nitkowski, writing for FoxSports.com, laid out the old-school case against Harper and for Papelbon.
If you want the ballplayer’s point of view — and that’s the main reason
you might want to check out this blog — I gave it to you. Teammates
sometimes scuffle (I know of several physical confrontations that never
got public scrutiny). Bottom line: If you’re going to scuffle, don’t do
it in the dugout.
Nitkowski bravely got anonymous players to comment on the Harper versus Papelbon scuffle. For that, these players should be admired. After all, they feel so strongly one way that they aren't even brave enough to put their name to their opinion. It's "old-school" to suggest Bryce Harper should be choked and not put your name to the opinion. So anonymous players saying Papelbon was in the right doesn't really do it for me.
The same thing applied to the Papelbon-Harper confrontation, so I
thought fans who want to know how things work in the big leagues would
be interested in that distinction. It wasn’t a long bit and originally
it was tucked in at the bottom of a longer post.
But, pageviews! The editors knew they had a hot take that could get them some web traffic.
But we’re being encouraged to do everything we can to increase
traffic to our website, so I figured I’d put it at the top of the post
because it was big topic of conversation in the world of baseball. If
increasing traffic was the goal, I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Increasing traffic is always the goal. It would be nice if Lee Judge increased traffic by not suggesting violence against an athlete was justified, but hey, take the pageviews where you can get them I guess.
But
right now I just want to take the opportunity to say something to all
the people I offended and I say it with complete sincerity:
Thanks for the page views.
Edgy! You know, if acting like a jerk means a person should be choked, then maybe Lee Judge would suggest that Lee Judge suggesting Bryce Harper should be choked is a jerk thing to do. Therefore, maybe Lee Judge would believe he should be choked by one of his co-workers.
Showing posts with label choking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label choking. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Thursday, September 19, 2013
10 comments MMQB Review: Really Loud in Seattle Edition
Peter King summed up what he felt was a pretty uneventful Week 1 of the NFL season last week in MMQB. He reiterated that trading Anquan Boldin to the 49ers (which again, it was a tough decision, but Peter himself had written about the potential for the Ravens to purge veterans this past offseason so I'm confused as to why he was harping on the issue) wasn't the Ravens best offseason move, gave us a Quote of the Week that he admits probably isn't a Quote of the Week, and didn't mention Tavon Austin once. This week Peter talks about how loud the Seahawks crowd is, talks about how Johnny Manziel is so much like Tim Tebow, and reminds us all that it is early in the NFL season and too early to make certain conclusions, followed by Peter feeling certain about making conclusions about the NFL season so far. Peter loves to do this. He loves to remind his readers not to do something, followed by Peter doing the exact same thing he warned his readers against doing.
Thirty years of covering the NFL demands you have perspective after a night like last night. After all, it’s Week 2. Arizona won in Foxboro in Week 2 last year. Peyton Manning threw three interceptions in the first nine minutes in Week 2 last year. Strange things happen in September, before true patterns develop.
It's way too early to make any definitive statements. Everyone calm down and trust Peter's veteran sportswriting presence to tell us that Week 2 is way too early to determine what's going to happen. Just listen to Peter be reasonable and adjust your reactions.
But it’s hard not to wonder this about the NFC playoff race: If Seattle wins home-field advantage, what team is going into that cauldron of sound and fury, CenturyLink Field, and winning a football game?
Peter says "fuck it," he already has Seattle going 8-0 at home and if they win four road games, what's to stop them from making it to the Super Bowl? Nothing will stop the Seahawks. So true patterns haven't developed, but Peter is pretty sure the 2-0 Seahawks are going to make the Super Bowl based on their victories over the Panthers and 49ers.
San Francisco has been a hot mess in only one place since 2012 dawned—Seattle—and no one can tell me it doesn’t have a lot to do with the crowd.
A lot of teams are a hot mess when they come to Seattle. Also, Peter just wrote "a hot mess." I'm not sure if this is Peter King writing MMQB this week or a stereotypical sassy gay sidekick from a romantic comedy, but since the first paragraphs of the column consist of the writer telling everyone what not to do and then the writer doing the same thing he said no one else should do, it's safe to assume Peter King is writing this column and not a character based on Sean Hayes.
It was so loud, Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor told me, that the Seattle defense, which normally has an edge when the crowd is going nuts, had trouble hearing middle linebacker Bobby Wagner call the plays in the defensive huddle. The defense had to use hand signals for those who didn’t hear what Wagner was saying, even in a tight huddle. But it was still a huge edge for Seattle, because obviously it was impossible for Colin Kaepernick to communicate in any way but a non-verbal one.
This is as opposed to the hand signals the Seahawks defense had to use to communicate and hear what Bobby Wagner was saying, which apparently is a verbal way of communicating in Peter's opinion.
Probably the most amazing thing is the place was louder after the 60-minute weather delay, and after halftime: It got to 136.6 decibels in the third quarter, 16.6 decibels louder than the sound generated by a jet engine on an open runway.
It was very, very loud and this obviously had an effect on the 49ers. I mean, it had to have had an effect. Let's hear from Richard Sherman,
“It was electric,’’ cornerback Richard Sherman, the star of the show, told me from Seattle. “You could cut the energy in the stadium with a knife.
Hmmm...I think our Stanford-attending Richard Sherman is mixing his metaphors a little bit. I think it's silence that is supposed to be cut with a knife.
“This wasn’t the Super Bowl tonight,’’ said Sherman. “We haven’t won anything yet. We have to act like we’ve been here before. This was just another game, to tell you the truth.’’
You can cut Sherman's truthfulness with a knife.
Sherman went to his coaches to ask if he could shadow Anquan Boldin in certain schemes. Normally, Sherman is the left corner. Period. He moved around to shadow Buffalo’s Stevie Johnson some last season, but mostly he stays left. “The coaches said it was fine,’’ said Sherman. “Sunday night football, everybody is watching, so watch this. I had him when he was split out, when he was in the left slot, right slot. Didn’t matter.’’ Sherman covered Boldin on about 75 percent of the snaps. Last week the Niners receiver caught 12 balls for 208 yards. This week: one for seven yards.
And I really, really thank you Richard Sherman for sparing us another week of "The Anquan Boldin Chronicles" where Peter tries to figure out exactly why the Ravens traded Boldin for a sixth round pick.
“It makes me feel good—like I can execute a game plan the way it’s called,’’ Sherman said. “But no, I’m not surprised.”
Yeah, but we all know that Anquan Boldin is worth $6 million per year as the 12th highest paid wide receiver, getting paid more than Steve Smith, A.J. Green, Wes Welker, Jordy Nelson, Vincent Jackson, Hakeem Nicks and Julio Jones (granted Green, Nicks and Jones are still in their rookie contract seasons).
The Seahawks’ front never let Frank Gore breathe. San Francisco backs ran 11 times and gained 13 yards. They’d better figure a way to run it by the time of the rematch Dec. 8 in Candlestick.
Absolutely, they should figure out a way to run the football before December 8. Because the 49ers play no meaningful games before December 8 and the winner of the December 8 rematch between the Seahawks and 49ers will determine who wins the Super Bowl, if not the fate of humanity.
They know the truth, and the 49ers do too: If the road to the Super Bowl goes through Seattle, it’s going to be the biggest disadvantage in recent football history for the road team.
Yeah, possibly, but it's not like there are 14 other games left in the season to be played and there are other teams who could have a better record than the Seahawks even if they do end up with a better record than the 49ers.
Manziel, in his third year of eligibility at Texas A&M, could declare for the 2014 draft if he wants to come out, which seems likely. (He can also stay in and play the 2014 college season, and 2015 as well.) But Manziel, to many teams right now, would be undraftable because they’re scared of his mood swings and off-field questions.
Plus, Manziel tends to throw the ball up into traffic unnecessarily. So while sometimes this works, like it did once in the Alabama game on the fantastic play where he got away from approximately 29 Crimson Tide defenders to complete a prayer of a pass for a first down, it also can be a drawback when Manziel throws a stupid interception at a bad time, like he did in the Alabama game. He's like a shorter, more fame-driven Brett Favre (and calling someone more fame-driven than Brett Favre is saying a lot). All it takes is one team to think he is a future star and he will go in the first round.
But it only takes one team out of 32 to fall for him. And some team will, unless he self-destructs between today and draft day.
I just wrote that. I've watched Manziel play a few times and I would be much more worried about the risks he takes on the football field then his behavior off the football field if I were an NFL team. Scampering all over the field and then throwing a pass up for grabs works in college football, but it may not work so well in the NFL.
The MMQB’s Greg A. Bedard was in College Station Saturday, and he’ll report the Manziel story for us tomorrow. I can’t wait to read what he thinks of the kid, and what the pro football men in his rolodex think. As I said on NBC Sunday night, Browns assistant GM Ray Farmer scouted the game. Hmmmmmm. Johnny Dawg Pound!
That would be great if the Browns went from an extremely mature quarterback in Brandon Weeden to a quarterback that many scouts consider to be an extremely immature quarterback.
The NFC East does not. Most of us think the NFC’s a better conference, right? It’s not acting like it. The AFC was 4-0 in cross-conference games Sunday. The NFC East went 0-4, three of the losses coming to the supposedly weak AFC West: Denver over the Giants, San Diego over the Eagles, and Kansas City over Dallas.
And because the NFC East isn't very good then obviously the entire NFC conference can't be as good as "we" thought it was. After all, the NFC East is the only division that matters in the entire NFC.
My surprise team of the first eighth of the season? Miami (2-0).
But of course it is too early in Peter's opinion to draw any permanent conclusions on which teams are the real surprise of the 2013 season.
And did you notice Ryan Tannehill bested Luck Sunday?
No, but I noticed that the Dolphins as a team beat the Colts as a team.
Andy Reid is 2-0 too … and he returns to the scene of his prime Thursday night. “Listen, you know me,’’ he said over the phone from Arrowhead Sunday after the 17-16 win over Dallas. “I haven’t thought about that stuff. I don’t get caught up in it. All I know is it’s a short week and we’ve got to get ready to play on the road in a hurry.” Uh, come on. You’re returning to the place you coached 14 years. Thursday night. Prime time. E-A-G-L-E-S! EAGLES! Sound familiar?
How dare Andy Reid treat this like any other game and not feed into the hype of his return to Philadelphia! The NFL is no fun to watch if there can't be storylines that go along with the game being played.
Good for Mike McCoy, who thinks before he snaps. So the Chargers had a 21-point lead with 21 minutes to play Monday night and blew it, losing 31-28 to Houston. Same old Norvy Chargers, right? “I went back and watched the tape,’’ McCoy said Sunday from Philadelphia. “I tortured myself. I went back and forth over the plays we called, wondering what we should have done. In this business, you know every time a play doesn’t work, you say, ‘I should have called something else.’ And after I examined all those plays down the stretch, you know what? I wouldn’t change a single one. I have faith in my coaches and what we called. We just had to play better, and that’s what I told my team.”
So basically Mike McCoy is saying he didn't make any mistakes in his play-calling and the responsibility for the loss is totally on his players. I can buy how players need to take responsibility for their actions on the field, but a coach saying he wouldn't change a single play down the stretch doesn't sound like a coach I would want to play for.
"Oh no, I did everything right. You guys just need to execute better," has quickly become Rivera-speak that actually means, "I don't know exactly what went wrong, the players should have won the game for us."
On Sunday, reclamation project Eddie Royal scored his third, fourth and fifth touchdowns of the season (Eddie Royal—he still plays?), Philip Rivers threw for 419 yards, and San Diego, on a short week, stunned the Eagles 33-30. Heck of a job preparing his team by McCoy.
But the Chargers won the next game, so clearly McCoy's strategy of doing everything perfectly and telling his players to execute better worked. Coach of the Year candidate?
The anatomy of a win. In Buffalo, coach Doug Marrone told E.J. Manuel at the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, with Carolina up three and driving for an insurance field goal, that he was going to burn all three timeouts. “You’ll get the ball back, down six, with about 1:40 to go, and you’ll have to go the length of the field with no timeouts, okay?’’ Marrone told Manuel. His rookie quarterback was fine with that.
I'm guessing the conversation went more like this. "I'm going to burn all my timeouts. The defense will hold Carolina to a choice between a field goal attempt and going for it on fourth down. Ron Rivera will go for the field goal and then the Carolina defense will give up a touchdown. In fact, I'm not going to even call plays when you get the ball back on offense. Just do whatever the hell you want and draw plays in the grass. Trust me, we have this game won."
Here came the heavy rush. Two Carolina defenders messed up the coverage on Stevie Johnson, leaving him wide open. Touchdown. Buffalo wins, 24-23.
Actually one player, Josh Norman, messed up the coverage. He was told to switch off on his man by a teammate and Norman decided it would be best to ignore this. And of course Ron Rivera didn't want to use one of his timeouts in order to sort out this confusion or, you know, see what offensive set the Bills are showing and then adjust to that set forcing the Bills to call another play or stick with the one they have knowing Carolina has seen the formation. Doing any of those things would involve coaching which apparently Rivera doesn't believe is his job. His job is to motivate the players and then tell everyone after the game why the game was lost. 2-14 in games decided by seven points or less. It will be 2-20 before the end of this season at this rate.
Then Peter recommends a couple of books, because where else would be a good place to get a book recommendation?
The Fine Fifteen
Oh yes, NFL teams randomly placed in order of strength until 15 NFL teams have been listed.
2. Seattle (2-0).
4. New Orleans (2-0). Unimpressive win at Tampa Bay,
Because the Seahawks win at Carolina by five points was just so impressive the week before.
5. Miami (2-0). Excellent start for the Dolphins, with two road wins. Miami has had the best defense in football over the first two weeks, with nine sacks and foes completing just 53 percent of their passes.
The Dolphins beat the Browns. That's not incredibly impressive. I'm guessing much of this ranking is based on the Dolphins beating Andrew Luck (not the Colts team, but Andrew Luck) this past weekend. Either way, Peter is so impressed with Miami's 2-0 start he doesn't put either Indianapolis or Cleveland in his Fine Fifteen. So Peter is impressed that Miami beat two teams on the road that he doesn't think are average .
7. Chicago (2-0). Jay Cutler hung in after a bad interception. Matt Forte hung in after an ugly strip-fumble by the Vikes. This is an imperfect team, but the Bears play in an imperfect division.
This is as opposed to which NFC or AFC division that is perfect?
12. Green Bay (1-1). Amazing Aaron Dept.: Rodgers is averaging a 406-yard, 3.5-touchdown-pass day through two weeks. And he did his part of it Sunday after undergoing a massage/neck-maneuvering from club medics before the game.
If this were Brett Favre he would show post pictures of him getting the neck massage and then talk about how bad his neck hurts, but be very clear it would not affect his performance on the field, though his neck hurts like super-bad and he probably shouldn't be playing, but he will play because he's tough so please give him attention for how tough he is.
13. New England (2-0). Most advantageous opening schedule in recent league history: Two rookie quarterbacks to start—including Geno Smith having to go on the road in a short week—followed by a mini-bye (the Pats had the three-day weekend off) and a team with some civil war issues (Tampa Bay) coming up Sunday. In Foxboro.
So this isn't really a 2-0 record for New England, especially since the Patriots have been at full strength on offense for both of these games and all.
Offensive Players of the Week
James Jones, WR, Green Bay. The enjoyable thing about watching Jones play is that he’s not just a deep threat who runs all the vertical routes in the Packers playbook and juts out of bounds. He’s a physical receiver, and his 11-catch, 178-yard day—not exceeded by a Packer since 2004 (Javon Walker, 11 for 200 from Brett Favre) showed Jones as the complete receiver he’s become.
I like Jones, but he is 29 years old and has never had more than 784 yards receiving in a season. I think Peter is using the term "complete receiver" a bit loosely here. Also, this "complete receiver" had zero catches and zero targets against the 49ers defense in Week 1. Do "complete receivers" completely disappear against good teams?
Goat of the Week
Greg Schiano, head coach, Tampa Bay. The choice Schiano had to make with 70 seconds left in the fourth quarter and a 14-13lead over New Orleans, with a 4th-and-3 at the Saints’ 29, in a game in which neither team had any timeouts left: He could have punted and pinned Drew Brees at the, say, 10-yard line with 64 seconds left. Brees would have needed maybe 60 yards to get into Garrett Hartley field-goal range.
I can't believe I'm going to semi-defend Greg Schiano, here goes...
Peter is assuming this punt would be downed at the 10 yard line. If the punter kicks it into the end zone then the Buccaneers have netted 17 yards and Schiano has passed up the chance to put three more points on the board to gain seventeen extra yards. In fact, I think punting is the worst option here. The Buccaneers should have gone for it, kicked the field goal and then very, very last punted the ball.
Or he could have the August waiver signing from Buffalo, Rian Lindell, try a 47-yard field goal. If Lindell made it, the Saints would have had to drive for a touchdown to win the game. If Lindell missed it, the Saints would get the ball at their 37- and need 30 yards to be in field-goal range. Schiano decided to try the field goal. It was shanked. Brees went 54 yards, sweatlessly, to the winning chip-shot field goal as the clock expired. Bad decision by a coach under fire.
I agree, he should have gone for it on fourth down as opposed to letting the football get back into Drew Brees' hands. Punting doesn't seem like a great option to me in this situation.
“If we’re not starting fast, it’s my fault. Put that on my shoulders. I’ll take it. We’re not starting fast because of me.”
—Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, and truer words this season have not yet been spoken. Griffin’s team has fallen behind in the first two games 33-7 after 32 minutes, and 31-7 after 38 minutes.
I guess after a season of building Robert Griffin up it's time to start tearing him down now. After all, it's his fault the Redskins defense has given up 30+ points after 30+ minutes in both games this season.
We will all debate now whether Johnny Manziel will be a good NFL quarterback. I feel strongly he’ll be playing on Sundays, almost certainly beginning in 2014 after the first NFL draft for which he’ll be eligible … of course, barring the kind of off-field immaturity Manziel has been sometimes known for while at Texas A&M.
I believe strongly that Manziel will be playing on Sundays also. All it takes is one team to like him enough to draft him. It's not exactly going out on a limb to say Manziel will probably be taken in the first round, especially since we've seen quarterbacks like Tim Tebow taken in the first round recently. All it takes is one team.
I may be damning Manziel with faint praise here, but stylistically as a college player, he has some things in common with Tim Tebow.
(Peter King reclining in his chair talking to himself with his dog Bailey at his feet on Sunday evening) "How can I slip a Tim Tebow reference into MMQB this week?"
(Bailey barks and whimpers because Peter is accidentally spilling a pumpkin latte on his head out of Peter's well-worn recyclable Starbucks cup)
(Peter King) "Great point, Bailey! I will compare Johnny Manziel to Tim Tebow since they are both white and both played quarterback at SEC universities. Nevermind Manziel is smaller than Tebow, has a more pure traditional motion, is a better passer, a completely different runner and really has nothing in common with Tebow. Let's go for it!"
Manziel can make people miss more, and he’s by any measure more accurate.
Other than his throwing style and running style, Manziel is the exact same quarterback as Tim Tebow!
But there is one thing they definitely don’t have in common: Tebow’s second game against ‘Bama, in the 2009 SEC title game, was mediocre; Manziel’s second game against Alabama, after the Tide worked all offseason to be ready to stop him, was a success—despite two turnovers. He threw for 211 more yards in his second game against Alabama than in his first.
Both players played Alabama more than once! Has anyone seen Tebow and Manziel in the same room at the same time? Are we sure they aren't the same person?
So basically these "things in common" that Manziel has with Tebow are exactly what I stated. They both white, mobile quarterbacks who played at SEC universities.
You can say a 6-1, 210-pound quarterback (or whatever Manziel is) will have trouble lasting in NFL. He may. But it’d be because of his off-field nonsense, not what he’d do on the field, in my opinion. Just watch Russell Wilson. Watch a more pocketed Drew Brees. Small guys can play. Especially small guys who put the fear of God into Nick Saban.
At no point in this part of MMQB did Peter explain one thing that Tebow and Manziel have in common. At this point, I think it's fair to assume Peter is just simply mentioning Tebow out of habit or his analysis of Tebow being like Manziel is epically terrible.
“I would like to see Carroll and Harbaugh have a rage-off at midfield during halftime.”
—@ChrisWarcraft, author and former Vikes punter Chris Kluwe, watching Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines during the first half of Seahawks-Niners.
Chris Kluwe is so clever. His cleverness has shades of Tim Tebow.
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 2:
These things that Peter likes have things in common with things that Tim Tebow likes.
a. The NFL Matchup Show on ESPN, which had this bit of prescience from Ron Jaworski Sunday on Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III: “His mechanics are flawed right now because of the injury.” Which is what Jon Gruden said during the Monday Night Football telecast in Week 1.
Did Jaworski ever decide whether Colin Kaepernick was the greatest quarterback in NFL history yet? I also imagine Gruden followed up his comment about Griffin's mechanics by saying,
"But, this guy...if I had to choose one NFL quarterback to start an NFL game then it would be Robert Griffin or any of the other quarterbacks currently on an NFL roster."
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 2:
b. Geno Smith’s fourth-quarter efficiency.
Right, because Geno Smith should be efficient in his second career start with offensive weapons like he has. How dare he struggle in his second NFL game when surrounded by average NFL receivers against the team that played in the AFC Championship Game last year.
f. Corner route in Buffalo. Two seconds left. Game on the line. Stevie Johnson runs into the end zone and … no one covers him. One of the two Carolina defensive backs who both turned away from Johnson to cover the inside guy, Josh Norman or D.J. Moore, should wear the goat horns this morning in Charlotte. Huge, huge mistake.
Josh Norman is the one who didn't hear D.J. Moore tell him to switch off and cover Johnson. What a dumpster fire of incompetence.
3. I think Jacksonville’s the worst team in the league, and it’s not close. It’s taken only eight quarters to prove it definitively.
But again, it's too early to draw conclusions from just two weeks of NFL play. That is, unless Peter wants to draw conclusions, at which case he is free to ignore his own advice of having perspective after two weeks and start jumping to conclusions.
Then Peter publishes a letter from Robert Klemko's 79 year-old grandmother who doesn't like the NFL's clear bag rule. She promises she won't hurt anyone. Oh well, if people will just promise not to hurt anyone I guess there's no reason to keep the rule.
6. I think the good will of the Panthers’ 5-1 finish in 2012 has vanished. Cam Newton is 13-21 as a starting quarterback,
Very true and his head coach is 2-14 in games decided by seven points or less. Also, it was pretty obvious losing was going to happen this season because Ron Rivera is incompetent and has no chance of magically becoming competent. I hope for Cam's sake he chooses an organization better dedicated to helping him grow as a quarterback when he becomes a free agent in two years. Any chance he has of excelling is being wasted with Mike Shula as his offensive coordinator and Ron Rivera as his coach.
and the Panthers played it safe at the end of regulation in Buffalo, helping the Bills rally at the end.
After all, with a mobile quarterback who is 250 pounds what are the odds you can gain one yard on fourth down?
7. I think, in the wake of one of the most bizarre endings to a football game ever (Wisconsin-Arizona State, at 2 a.m. ET Sunday), I want to perform a public service for the Wisconsin coaching staff. Read this story from The MMQB in August. It centers on Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians coaching the minutiae to his young players. Never assume your players know all the rules, or will execute them properly. And remember Arians’ words: “There are no little things. The little things are all big things.” The little things cost the Badgers a game when their quarterback, Joe Stave, placed a ball down on the field, thinking he was downing it in good position to kick a game-winning field goal. But it happened so fast—even though Stave had time to kneel and put the ball down properly—that the officials and Sun Devil players weren’t sure what happened, and some ASU players flopped on the ball as the clock continued to run, and expire.
I feel like that was on the officials. Stave made it very clear he had downed the ball and then officials refused to pull the Sun Devils players off the ball, call them for a delay of game or show any urgency in getting the ball reset. I don't know how Stave could have made his attempt to down the ball any clearer outside of downing the ball and holding up a sign saying, "I have downed the ball and would like it to be reset in a timely fashion."
Stave needed to make it clear he was kneeling down and giving himself up, and it happened so fast no one could tell what he was doing. You can blame the officials, who were indecisive, but Stave has to execute the play with enough time on the clock and set Wisconsin up for the field goal.
He did make it clear. It is up to the officials to reset the football and control the football game by not allowing the Arizona State players to flop on the ball. To me, this was all on the officials for not controlling the game.
Then Peter starts to explain that Greg Schiano doesn't have a personal conflict with Josh Freeman, but instead he has a performance conflict with Freeman. Okay, I guess that makes more sense. It's fun to go back and read Peter's MMQB from Week 1 of the 2012 season where he talks about how Schiano has gained the respect of the Bucs players. Less than a year later many of the players reportedly don't like Schiano. I guess they don't have a personal issue with Schiano, but their issues are performance-based. You know, the Tampa Bay players want to win games.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
b. Saw something I’d never seen before, at any level of football: a timeout called at halftime. Well, almost. Army came out for the start of the third quarter, took the field, and the quarterback called a timeout.
So a timeout wasn't really called at halftime? So Peter didn't see something he had never seen before?
e. Can some doctor out there tell me why the University of Minnesota should keep Jerry Kill coaching football after his fourth seizure in three years on a Gopher game day? I don’t want to be insensitive. I’d really like to know if it makes sense to keep him on as coach.
Yeah, they should fire Kill after he had a seizure. That seems like the best possible move since Kill doesn't seem to want to retire or quit. Just fire him after he had a seizure. Brilliant.
h. C.C. Sabathia, 4.90 ERA. C.C. Sabathia, owed $96 million over the next four seasons.
If this were Dan Shaughnessy writing then he would say Sabathia can't handle the stress of playing in New York anymore and that explains his high ERA.
j. Helton hasn’t been great for five or six years, but he had a better career than you thought.
Thanks for telling me how great of a career I thought Helton had. I wasn't sure of my own thoughts, but now you have cleared them up for me.
Better career on-base percentage than Albert Pujols (.415 to .410), more hits than Mickey Mantle (2,505 to 2,415), more homers than Yogi Berra (367 to 358), more doubles than Tony Gwynn (585 to 543), better on-base-plus-slugging-percentage than Alex Rodriquez (.954 to .944),
Otherwise known as OPS.
and a better lifetime batting average than Derek Jeter (.317 to .312).
Better than the baseball player that Peter think is the best player of the last 25 years! That's amazing.
l. Coffeenerdness: One thing I don’t understand about baristas. I bring a re-useable grande cup into Starbucks and order a macchiato. Most often, the baristas take a short cup, line it up under the espresso filters, and push the button. The espresso flows into the cup, and the barista pours the espresso on top of the milk in the cup. Then the barista tosses the cup away. There are two other ways to do this—either by pouring the shots directly into the glass shot cups, or by having the shots flow directly into the cup filled two-thirds with milk. Instead, there’s a wasted paper cup. Time to issue a memo to baristas, Seattle.
God, you are an asshat for constantly telling people how to do their jobs. Maybe Starbucks insists the baristas do this. Maybe you could go purchase a machine that makes a macchiato and make your own coffee at home since Starbucks can't live up to your high standards. I hope the next time Peter goes into a Starbucks they use 10 cups to pour his coffee and then throw every single cup away in front of him.
o. I guess I have made a big mistake (my first). Never watched Breaking Bad. You know that feeling when everyone says you’ve got to watch a show, and you’re so far behind, and you throw your hands up in the air and say, “I’ll never catch up?” That’s me and Breaking Bad.
There are these things called "Blu-Ray's," or "DVD's" as is more likely the case for Peter. He can watch these DVD's/Blu-Ray's and catch up on episodes of "Breaking Bad," but I guess that's just absolutely out of the question.
The Adieu Haiku
Manziel strafes Saban.
Again. I see in Cleveland
Furrowed brows by Browns.
Good point, maybe the Browns should hire Nick Saban after they realize Rob Chudzinski is a better offensive coordinator than a head coach.
Thirty years of covering the NFL demands you have perspective after a night like last night. After all, it’s Week 2. Arizona won in Foxboro in Week 2 last year. Peyton Manning threw three interceptions in the first nine minutes in Week 2 last year. Strange things happen in September, before true patterns develop.
It's way too early to make any definitive statements. Everyone calm down and trust Peter's veteran sportswriting presence to tell us that Week 2 is way too early to determine what's going to happen. Just listen to Peter be reasonable and adjust your reactions.
But it’s hard not to wonder this about the NFC playoff race: If Seattle wins home-field advantage, what team is going into that cauldron of sound and fury, CenturyLink Field, and winning a football game?
Peter says "fuck it," he already has Seattle going 8-0 at home and if they win four road games, what's to stop them from making it to the Super Bowl? Nothing will stop the Seahawks. So true patterns haven't developed, but Peter is pretty sure the 2-0 Seahawks are going to make the Super Bowl based on their victories over the Panthers and 49ers.
San Francisco has been a hot mess in only one place since 2012 dawned—Seattle—and no one can tell me it doesn’t have a lot to do with the crowd.
A lot of teams are a hot mess when they come to Seattle. Also, Peter just wrote "a hot mess." I'm not sure if this is Peter King writing MMQB this week or a stereotypical sassy gay sidekick from a romantic comedy, but since the first paragraphs of the column consist of the writer telling everyone what not to do and then the writer doing the same thing he said no one else should do, it's safe to assume Peter King is writing this column and not a character based on Sean Hayes.
It was so loud, Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor told me, that the Seattle defense, which normally has an edge when the crowd is going nuts, had trouble hearing middle linebacker Bobby Wagner call the plays in the defensive huddle. The defense had to use hand signals for those who didn’t hear what Wagner was saying, even in a tight huddle. But it was still a huge edge for Seattle, because obviously it was impossible for Colin Kaepernick to communicate in any way but a non-verbal one.
This is as opposed to the hand signals the Seahawks defense had to use to communicate and hear what Bobby Wagner was saying, which apparently is a verbal way of communicating in Peter's opinion.
Probably the most amazing thing is the place was louder after the 60-minute weather delay, and after halftime: It got to 136.6 decibels in the third quarter, 16.6 decibels louder than the sound generated by a jet engine on an open runway.
It was very, very loud and this obviously had an effect on the 49ers. I mean, it had to have had an effect. Let's hear from Richard Sherman,
“It was electric,’’ cornerback Richard Sherman, the star of the show, told me from Seattle. “You could cut the energy in the stadium with a knife.
Hmmm...I think our Stanford-attending Richard Sherman is mixing his metaphors a little bit. I think it's silence that is supposed to be cut with a knife.
“This wasn’t the Super Bowl tonight,’’ said Sherman. “We haven’t won anything yet. We have to act like we’ve been here before. This was just another game, to tell you the truth.’’
You can cut Sherman's truthfulness with a knife.
Sherman went to his coaches to ask if he could shadow Anquan Boldin in certain schemes. Normally, Sherman is the left corner. Period. He moved around to shadow Buffalo’s Stevie Johnson some last season, but mostly he stays left. “The coaches said it was fine,’’ said Sherman. “Sunday night football, everybody is watching, so watch this. I had him when he was split out, when he was in the left slot, right slot. Didn’t matter.’’ Sherman covered Boldin on about 75 percent of the snaps. Last week the Niners receiver caught 12 balls for 208 yards. This week: one for seven yards.
And I really, really thank you Richard Sherman for sparing us another week of "The Anquan Boldin Chronicles" where Peter tries to figure out exactly why the Ravens traded Boldin for a sixth round pick.
“It makes me feel good—like I can execute a game plan the way it’s called,’’ Sherman said. “But no, I’m not surprised.”
Yeah, but we all know that Anquan Boldin is worth $6 million per year as the 12th highest paid wide receiver, getting paid more than Steve Smith, A.J. Green, Wes Welker, Jordy Nelson, Vincent Jackson, Hakeem Nicks and Julio Jones (granted Green, Nicks and Jones are still in their rookie contract seasons).
The Seahawks’ front never let Frank Gore breathe. San Francisco backs ran 11 times and gained 13 yards. They’d better figure a way to run it by the time of the rematch Dec. 8 in Candlestick.
Absolutely, they should figure out a way to run the football before December 8. Because the 49ers play no meaningful games before December 8 and the winner of the December 8 rematch between the Seahawks and 49ers will determine who wins the Super Bowl, if not the fate of humanity.
They know the truth, and the 49ers do too: If the road to the Super Bowl goes through Seattle, it’s going to be the biggest disadvantage in recent football history for the road team.
Yeah, possibly, but it's not like there are 14 other games left in the season to be played and there are other teams who could have a better record than the Seahawks even if they do end up with a better record than the 49ers.
Manziel, in his third year of eligibility at Texas A&M, could declare for the 2014 draft if he wants to come out, which seems likely. (He can also stay in and play the 2014 college season, and 2015 as well.) But Manziel, to many teams right now, would be undraftable because they’re scared of his mood swings and off-field questions.
Plus, Manziel tends to throw the ball up into traffic unnecessarily. So while sometimes this works, like it did once in the Alabama game on the fantastic play where he got away from approximately 29 Crimson Tide defenders to complete a prayer of a pass for a first down, it also can be a drawback when Manziel throws a stupid interception at a bad time, like he did in the Alabama game. He's like a shorter, more fame-driven Brett Favre (and calling someone more fame-driven than Brett Favre is saying a lot). All it takes is one team to think he is a future star and he will go in the first round.
But it only takes one team out of 32 to fall for him. And some team will, unless he self-destructs between today and draft day.
I just wrote that. I've watched Manziel play a few times and I would be much more worried about the risks he takes on the football field then his behavior off the football field if I were an NFL team. Scampering all over the field and then throwing a pass up for grabs works in college football, but it may not work so well in the NFL.
The MMQB’s Greg A. Bedard was in College Station Saturday, and he’ll report the Manziel story for us tomorrow. I can’t wait to read what he thinks of the kid, and what the pro football men in his rolodex think. As I said on NBC Sunday night, Browns assistant GM Ray Farmer scouted the game. Hmmmmmm. Johnny Dawg Pound!
That would be great if the Browns went from an extremely mature quarterback in Brandon Weeden to a quarterback that many scouts consider to be an extremely immature quarterback.
The NFC East does not. Most of us think the NFC’s a better conference, right? It’s not acting like it. The AFC was 4-0 in cross-conference games Sunday. The NFC East went 0-4, three of the losses coming to the supposedly weak AFC West: Denver over the Giants, San Diego over the Eagles, and Kansas City over Dallas.
And because the NFC East isn't very good then obviously the entire NFC conference can't be as good as "we" thought it was. After all, the NFC East is the only division that matters in the entire NFC.
My surprise team of the first eighth of the season? Miami (2-0).
But of course it is too early in Peter's opinion to draw any permanent conclusions on which teams are the real surprise of the 2013 season.
And did you notice Ryan Tannehill bested Luck Sunday?
No, but I noticed that the Dolphins as a team beat the Colts as a team.
Andy Reid is 2-0 too … and he returns to the scene of his prime Thursday night. “Listen, you know me,’’ he said over the phone from Arrowhead Sunday after the 17-16 win over Dallas. “I haven’t thought about that stuff. I don’t get caught up in it. All I know is it’s a short week and we’ve got to get ready to play on the road in a hurry.” Uh, come on. You’re returning to the place you coached 14 years. Thursday night. Prime time. E-A-G-L-E-S! EAGLES! Sound familiar?
How dare Andy Reid treat this like any other game and not feed into the hype of his return to Philadelphia! The NFL is no fun to watch if there can't be storylines that go along with the game being played.
Good for Mike McCoy, who thinks before he snaps. So the Chargers had a 21-point lead with 21 minutes to play Monday night and blew it, losing 31-28 to Houston. Same old Norvy Chargers, right? “I went back and watched the tape,’’ McCoy said Sunday from Philadelphia. “I tortured myself. I went back and forth over the plays we called, wondering what we should have done. In this business, you know every time a play doesn’t work, you say, ‘I should have called something else.’ And after I examined all those plays down the stretch, you know what? I wouldn’t change a single one. I have faith in my coaches and what we called. We just had to play better, and that’s what I told my team.”
So basically Mike McCoy is saying he didn't make any mistakes in his play-calling and the responsibility for the loss is totally on his players. I can buy how players need to take responsibility for their actions on the field, but a coach saying he wouldn't change a single play down the stretch doesn't sound like a coach I would want to play for.
"Oh no, I did everything right. You guys just need to execute better," has quickly become Rivera-speak that actually means, "I don't know exactly what went wrong, the players should have won the game for us."
On Sunday, reclamation project Eddie Royal scored his third, fourth and fifth touchdowns of the season (Eddie Royal—he still plays?), Philip Rivers threw for 419 yards, and San Diego, on a short week, stunned the Eagles 33-30. Heck of a job preparing his team by McCoy.
But the Chargers won the next game, so clearly McCoy's strategy of doing everything perfectly and telling his players to execute better worked. Coach of the Year candidate?
The anatomy of a win. In Buffalo, coach Doug Marrone told E.J. Manuel at the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, with Carolina up three and driving for an insurance field goal, that he was going to burn all three timeouts. “You’ll get the ball back, down six, with about 1:40 to go, and you’ll have to go the length of the field with no timeouts, okay?’’ Marrone told Manuel. His rookie quarterback was fine with that.
I'm guessing the conversation went more like this. "I'm going to burn all my timeouts. The defense will hold Carolina to a choice between a field goal attempt and going for it on fourth down. Ron Rivera will go for the field goal and then the Carolina defense will give up a touchdown. In fact, I'm not going to even call plays when you get the ball back on offense. Just do whatever the hell you want and draw plays in the grass. Trust me, we have this game won."
Here came the heavy rush. Two Carolina defenders messed up the coverage on Stevie Johnson, leaving him wide open. Touchdown. Buffalo wins, 24-23.
Actually one player, Josh Norman, messed up the coverage. He was told to switch off on his man by a teammate and Norman decided it would be best to ignore this. And of course Ron Rivera didn't want to use one of his timeouts in order to sort out this confusion or, you know, see what offensive set the Bills are showing and then adjust to that set forcing the Bills to call another play or stick with the one they have knowing Carolina has seen the formation. Doing any of those things would involve coaching which apparently Rivera doesn't believe is his job. His job is to motivate the players and then tell everyone after the game why the game was lost. 2-14 in games decided by seven points or less. It will be 2-20 before the end of this season at this rate.
Then Peter recommends a couple of books, because where else would be a good place to get a book recommendation?
The Fine Fifteen
Oh yes, NFL teams randomly placed in order of strength until 15 NFL teams have been listed.
2. Seattle (2-0).
4. New Orleans (2-0). Unimpressive win at Tampa Bay,
Because the Seahawks win at Carolina by five points was just so impressive the week before.
5. Miami (2-0). Excellent start for the Dolphins, with two road wins. Miami has had the best defense in football over the first two weeks, with nine sacks and foes completing just 53 percent of their passes.
The Dolphins beat the Browns. That's not incredibly impressive. I'm guessing much of this ranking is based on the Dolphins beating Andrew Luck (not the Colts team, but Andrew Luck) this past weekend. Either way, Peter is so impressed with Miami's 2-0 start he doesn't put either Indianapolis or Cleveland in his Fine Fifteen. So Peter is impressed that Miami beat two teams on the road that he doesn't think are average .
7. Chicago (2-0). Jay Cutler hung in after a bad interception. Matt Forte hung in after an ugly strip-fumble by the Vikes. This is an imperfect team, but the Bears play in an imperfect division.
This is as opposed to which NFC or AFC division that is perfect?
12. Green Bay (1-1). Amazing Aaron Dept.: Rodgers is averaging a 406-yard, 3.5-touchdown-pass day through two weeks. And he did his part of it Sunday after undergoing a massage/neck-maneuvering from club medics before the game.
If this were Brett Favre he would show post pictures of him getting the neck massage and then talk about how bad his neck hurts, but be very clear it would not affect his performance on the field, though his neck hurts like super-bad and he probably shouldn't be playing, but he will play because he's tough so please give him attention for how tough he is.
13. New England (2-0). Most advantageous opening schedule in recent league history: Two rookie quarterbacks to start—including Geno Smith having to go on the road in a short week—followed by a mini-bye (the Pats had the three-day weekend off) and a team with some civil war issues (Tampa Bay) coming up Sunday. In Foxboro.
So this isn't really a 2-0 record for New England, especially since the Patriots have been at full strength on offense for both of these games and all.
Offensive Players of the Week
James Jones, WR, Green Bay. The enjoyable thing about watching Jones play is that he’s not just a deep threat who runs all the vertical routes in the Packers playbook and juts out of bounds. He’s a physical receiver, and his 11-catch, 178-yard day—not exceeded by a Packer since 2004 (Javon Walker, 11 for 200 from Brett Favre) showed Jones as the complete receiver he’s become.
I like Jones, but he is 29 years old and has never had more than 784 yards receiving in a season. I think Peter is using the term "complete receiver" a bit loosely here. Also, this "complete receiver" had zero catches and zero targets against the 49ers defense in Week 1. Do "complete receivers" completely disappear against good teams?
Goat of the Week
Greg Schiano, head coach, Tampa Bay. The choice Schiano had to make with 70 seconds left in the fourth quarter and a 14-13lead over New Orleans, with a 4th-and-3 at the Saints’ 29, in a game in which neither team had any timeouts left: He could have punted and pinned Drew Brees at the, say, 10-yard line with 64 seconds left. Brees would have needed maybe 60 yards to get into Garrett Hartley field-goal range.
I can't believe I'm going to semi-defend Greg Schiano, here goes...
Peter is assuming this punt would be downed at the 10 yard line. If the punter kicks it into the end zone then the Buccaneers have netted 17 yards and Schiano has passed up the chance to put three more points on the board to gain seventeen extra yards. In fact, I think punting is the worst option here. The Buccaneers should have gone for it, kicked the field goal and then very, very last punted the ball.
Or he could have the August waiver signing from Buffalo, Rian Lindell, try a 47-yard field goal. If Lindell made it, the Saints would have had to drive for a touchdown to win the game. If Lindell missed it, the Saints would get the ball at their 37- and need 30 yards to be in field-goal range. Schiano decided to try the field goal. It was shanked. Brees went 54 yards, sweatlessly, to the winning chip-shot field goal as the clock expired. Bad decision by a coach under fire.
I agree, he should have gone for it on fourth down as opposed to letting the football get back into Drew Brees' hands. Punting doesn't seem like a great option to me in this situation.
“If we’re not starting fast, it’s my fault. Put that on my shoulders. I’ll take it. We’re not starting fast because of me.”
—Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, and truer words this season have not yet been spoken. Griffin’s team has fallen behind in the first two games 33-7 after 32 minutes, and 31-7 after 38 minutes.
I guess after a season of building Robert Griffin up it's time to start tearing him down now. After all, it's his fault the Redskins defense has given up 30+ points after 30+ minutes in both games this season.
We will all debate now whether Johnny Manziel will be a good NFL quarterback. I feel strongly he’ll be playing on Sundays, almost certainly beginning in 2014 after the first NFL draft for which he’ll be eligible … of course, barring the kind of off-field immaturity Manziel has been sometimes known for while at Texas A&M.
I believe strongly that Manziel will be playing on Sundays also. All it takes is one team to like him enough to draft him. It's not exactly going out on a limb to say Manziel will probably be taken in the first round, especially since we've seen quarterbacks like Tim Tebow taken in the first round recently. All it takes is one team.
I may be damning Manziel with faint praise here, but stylistically as a college player, he has some things in common with Tim Tebow.
(Peter King reclining in his chair talking to himself with his dog Bailey at his feet on Sunday evening) "How can I slip a Tim Tebow reference into MMQB this week?"
(Bailey barks and whimpers because Peter is accidentally spilling a pumpkin latte on his head out of Peter's well-worn recyclable Starbucks cup)
(Peter King) "Great point, Bailey! I will compare Johnny Manziel to Tim Tebow since they are both white and both played quarterback at SEC universities. Nevermind Manziel is smaller than Tebow, has a more pure traditional motion, is a better passer, a completely different runner and really has nothing in common with Tebow. Let's go for it!"
Manziel can make people miss more, and he’s by any measure more accurate.
Other than his throwing style and running style, Manziel is the exact same quarterback as Tim Tebow!
But there is one thing they definitely don’t have in common: Tebow’s second game against ‘Bama, in the 2009 SEC title game, was mediocre; Manziel’s second game against Alabama, after the Tide worked all offseason to be ready to stop him, was a success—despite two turnovers. He threw for 211 more yards in his second game against Alabama than in his first.
Both players played Alabama more than once! Has anyone seen Tebow and Manziel in the same room at the same time? Are we sure they aren't the same person?
So basically these "things in common" that Manziel has with Tebow are exactly what I stated. They both white, mobile quarterbacks who played at SEC universities.
You can say a 6-1, 210-pound quarterback (or whatever Manziel is) will have trouble lasting in NFL. He may. But it’d be because of his off-field nonsense, not what he’d do on the field, in my opinion. Just watch Russell Wilson. Watch a more pocketed Drew Brees. Small guys can play. Especially small guys who put the fear of God into Nick Saban.
At no point in this part of MMQB did Peter explain one thing that Tebow and Manziel have in common. At this point, I think it's fair to assume Peter is just simply mentioning Tebow out of habit or his analysis of Tebow being like Manziel is epically terrible.
“I would like to see Carroll and Harbaugh have a rage-off at midfield during halftime.”
—@ChrisWarcraft, author and former Vikes punter Chris Kluwe, watching Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines during the first half of Seahawks-Niners.
Chris Kluwe is so clever. His cleverness has shades of Tim Tebow.
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 2:
These things that Peter likes have things in common with things that Tim Tebow likes.
a. The NFL Matchup Show on ESPN, which had this bit of prescience from Ron Jaworski Sunday on Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III: “His mechanics are flawed right now because of the injury.” Which is what Jon Gruden said during the Monday Night Football telecast in Week 1.
Did Jaworski ever decide whether Colin Kaepernick was the greatest quarterback in NFL history yet? I also imagine Gruden followed up his comment about Griffin's mechanics by saying,
"But, this guy...if I had to choose one NFL quarterback to start an NFL game then it would be Robert Griffin or any of the other quarterbacks currently on an NFL roster."
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 2:
b. Geno Smith’s fourth-quarter efficiency.
Right, because Geno Smith should be efficient in his second career start with offensive weapons like he has. How dare he struggle in his second NFL game when surrounded by average NFL receivers against the team that played in the AFC Championship Game last year.
f. Corner route in Buffalo. Two seconds left. Game on the line. Stevie Johnson runs into the end zone and … no one covers him. One of the two Carolina defensive backs who both turned away from Johnson to cover the inside guy, Josh Norman or D.J. Moore, should wear the goat horns this morning in Charlotte. Huge, huge mistake.
Josh Norman is the one who didn't hear D.J. Moore tell him to switch off and cover Johnson. What a dumpster fire of incompetence.
3. I think Jacksonville’s the worst team in the league, and it’s not close. It’s taken only eight quarters to prove it definitively.
But again, it's too early to draw conclusions from just two weeks of NFL play. That is, unless Peter wants to draw conclusions, at which case he is free to ignore his own advice of having perspective after two weeks and start jumping to conclusions.
Then Peter publishes a letter from Robert Klemko's 79 year-old grandmother who doesn't like the NFL's clear bag rule. She promises she won't hurt anyone. Oh well, if people will just promise not to hurt anyone I guess there's no reason to keep the rule.
6. I think the good will of the Panthers’ 5-1 finish in 2012 has vanished. Cam Newton is 13-21 as a starting quarterback,
Very true and his head coach is 2-14 in games decided by seven points or less. Also, it was pretty obvious losing was going to happen this season because Ron Rivera is incompetent and has no chance of magically becoming competent. I hope for Cam's sake he chooses an organization better dedicated to helping him grow as a quarterback when he becomes a free agent in two years. Any chance he has of excelling is being wasted with Mike Shula as his offensive coordinator and Ron Rivera as his coach.
and the Panthers played it safe at the end of regulation in Buffalo, helping the Bills rally at the end.
After all, with a mobile quarterback who is 250 pounds what are the odds you can gain one yard on fourth down?
7. I think, in the wake of one of the most bizarre endings to a football game ever (Wisconsin-Arizona State, at 2 a.m. ET Sunday), I want to perform a public service for the Wisconsin coaching staff. Read this story from The MMQB in August. It centers on Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians coaching the minutiae to his young players. Never assume your players know all the rules, or will execute them properly. And remember Arians’ words: “There are no little things. The little things are all big things.” The little things cost the Badgers a game when their quarterback, Joe Stave, placed a ball down on the field, thinking he was downing it in good position to kick a game-winning field goal. But it happened so fast—even though Stave had time to kneel and put the ball down properly—that the officials and Sun Devil players weren’t sure what happened, and some ASU players flopped on the ball as the clock continued to run, and expire.
I feel like that was on the officials. Stave made it very clear he had downed the ball and then officials refused to pull the Sun Devils players off the ball, call them for a delay of game or show any urgency in getting the ball reset. I don't know how Stave could have made his attempt to down the ball any clearer outside of downing the ball and holding up a sign saying, "I have downed the ball and would like it to be reset in a timely fashion."
Stave needed to make it clear he was kneeling down and giving himself up, and it happened so fast no one could tell what he was doing. You can blame the officials, who were indecisive, but Stave has to execute the play with enough time on the clock and set Wisconsin up for the field goal.
He did make it clear. It is up to the officials to reset the football and control the football game by not allowing the Arizona State players to flop on the ball. To me, this was all on the officials for not controlling the game.
Then Peter starts to explain that Greg Schiano doesn't have a personal conflict with Josh Freeman, but instead he has a performance conflict with Freeman. Okay, I guess that makes more sense. It's fun to go back and read Peter's MMQB from Week 1 of the 2012 season where he talks about how Schiano has gained the respect of the Bucs players. Less than a year later many of the players reportedly don't like Schiano. I guess they don't have a personal issue with Schiano, but their issues are performance-based. You know, the Tampa Bay players want to win games.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
b. Saw something I’d never seen before, at any level of football: a timeout called at halftime. Well, almost. Army came out for the start of the third quarter, took the field, and the quarterback called a timeout.
So a timeout wasn't really called at halftime? So Peter didn't see something he had never seen before?
e. Can some doctor out there tell me why the University of Minnesota should keep Jerry Kill coaching football after his fourth seizure in three years on a Gopher game day? I don’t want to be insensitive. I’d really like to know if it makes sense to keep him on as coach.
Yeah, they should fire Kill after he had a seizure. That seems like the best possible move since Kill doesn't seem to want to retire or quit. Just fire him after he had a seizure. Brilliant.
h. C.C. Sabathia, 4.90 ERA. C.C. Sabathia, owed $96 million over the next four seasons.
If this were Dan Shaughnessy writing then he would say Sabathia can't handle the stress of playing in New York anymore and that explains his high ERA.
j. Helton hasn’t been great for five or six years, but he had a better career than you thought.
Thanks for telling me how great of a career I thought Helton had. I wasn't sure of my own thoughts, but now you have cleared them up for me.
Better career on-base percentage than Albert Pujols (.415 to .410), more hits than Mickey Mantle (2,505 to 2,415), more homers than Yogi Berra (367 to 358), more doubles than Tony Gwynn (585 to 543), better on-base-plus-slugging-percentage than Alex Rodriquez (.954 to .944),
Otherwise known as OPS.
and a better lifetime batting average than Derek Jeter (.317 to .312).
Better than the baseball player that Peter think is the best player of the last 25 years! That's amazing.
l. Coffeenerdness: One thing I don’t understand about baristas. I bring a re-useable grande cup into Starbucks and order a macchiato. Most often, the baristas take a short cup, line it up under the espresso filters, and push the button. The espresso flows into the cup, and the barista pours the espresso on top of the milk in the cup. Then the barista tosses the cup away. There are two other ways to do this—either by pouring the shots directly into the glass shot cups, or by having the shots flow directly into the cup filled two-thirds with milk. Instead, there’s a wasted paper cup. Time to issue a memo to baristas, Seattle.
God, you are an asshat for constantly telling people how to do their jobs. Maybe Starbucks insists the baristas do this. Maybe you could go purchase a machine that makes a macchiato and make your own coffee at home since Starbucks can't live up to your high standards. I hope the next time Peter goes into a Starbucks they use 10 cups to pour his coffee and then throw every single cup away in front of him.
o. I guess I have made a big mistake (my first). Never watched Breaking Bad. You know that feeling when everyone says you’ve got to watch a show, and you’re so far behind, and you throw your hands up in the air and say, “I’ll never catch up?” That’s me and Breaking Bad.
There are these things called "Blu-Ray's," or "DVD's" as is more likely the case for Peter. He can watch these DVD's/Blu-Ray's and catch up on episodes of "Breaking Bad," but I guess that's just absolutely out of the question.
The Adieu Haiku
Manziel strafes Saban.
Again. I see in Cleveland
Furrowed brows by Browns.
Good point, maybe the Browns should hire Nick Saban after they realize Rob Chudzinski is a better offensive coordinator than a head coach.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
10 comments MMQB Review: Peter Misses Being on Road, But the Road Doesn't Miss Him Edition
Peter King was very disappointed in last week's playoff games. I am sure he was much happier with this weekend's Divisional playoff games because there were two that went down to the last minute and were win by a field goal and the two other games that were well-played. Peter also didn't understand why Eddie Money is ruining his great legacy by doing GEICO commercials, as well as defended Scott Pioli because Peter thinks Pioli is a pretty good guy even if he wasn't a great general manager. Why would Chiefs fans make personal attacks on Pioli if he isn't a good general manager, but is a good guy? Being a good guy is what being a general manager is all about, right? This week Peter talks about the meeting up of Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis in a playoff game, says he misses traveling despite the fact he constantly bitches about traveling, and desperately managed to shoehorn a Brett Favre reference into the column. It doesn't take much for Peter to bring up Lord Favre and like any good worshiper of Favre, he found a way.
Ray Lewis was sick Saturday night, 90 minutes after the Ravens had stunned the Broncos here, and he was waiting in a stadium anteroom to be connected with Deion Sanders for an NFL Network interview. "Flu?'' someone asked him. He nodded in the midst of a coughing jag, said he'd had it all week, sounding like a Contagion victim.
Which is a very good movie Peter King might add. There wasn't much levity and no Meryl Streep appearances, but otherwise a good film.
Most often it's a handshake, a few whispered words, a hug, and one is off to his team bus and the other off to his life. This was longer. This was one of the greatest linebackers of all time, in the last month of his football life, and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, after one of his toughest losses, who had to say goodbye to Lewis.
And saying this one of the toughest losses of Peyton Manning's life is saying a lot. He's had quite a few tough playoff losses. There is good news though. John Fox didn't have to use those last two timeouts at the end of regulation and get out of his comfort zone by being aggressive. As Vince Lombardi always said, "It's better to rely on the flip of a coin in overtime than to rely on one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history with two timeouts in his pocket playing a home playoff game." It's very, very important to stay in one's comfort zone and not risk doing something aggressive that could lose a playoff game.
Ray Lewis in, Peyton Manning out. Colin Kaepernick in, Aaron Rodgers out. Tony Gonzalez in (more importantly to a very fidgety fandom, Matt Ryan in), the ridiculously charismatic Russell Wilson out. Tom Brady in, Arian Foster out. No Brady-Manning XIV this weekend, but who won't watch Lewis chase the Brady hurry-up offense.
There's no question mark at the end of this sentence. Apparently "...who won't watch Lewis chase the Brady hurry-up offense" isn't a question but a statement.
And Seahawks-Niners III would have been a San Francisco treat, but I'll take the NFL's fastest-rising star since Tebow,
Good job shoehorning that Tebow reference into this column Peter. God knows there haven't been any rising stars other than Tebow over the last year (I can name five off the top of my head) and your audience probably isn't tired at all of Tebow coverage. Way to know your audience.
The championship weekend lineup's pretty good, even without Manning.
Even without Manning? It's going to be hard for these conference championship games to be any good if the media can't hype up the matchups with easily found and somewhat contrived storylines, but I guess we should just watch the games and hope they are enjoyable. Really, without Manning we should probably cancel the playoffs, but it's too late for that now.
Not much is different for the Ravens from the 23-20 loss last year in the title game, other than the two men who had forgettable last minutes of the game, kicker Billy Cundiff (shanked a 32-yard field goal attempt) and wideout Lee Evans (had the winning touchdown pass chopped out of his hands), are out, and Justin Tucker and Jacoby Jones are in.
Not much is different? The Patriots and Ravens aren't completely different teams, but some important things have changed. The Patriots have run the ball well this year with Steven Ridley and have Brandon Lloyd as a deep threat now. The Ravens didn't have Bernard Pierce to help share the load with Ray Rice last year and Torrey Smith has become an even better wide receiver and deep threat. The two teams aren't dramatically different, but I wouldn't say "not much" is different since the Ravens and Patriots defenses have a different look about them in terms of personnel, in addition to the offensive personnel changes the teams have seen.
So the seventh conference title game in the Belichick-Brady Era sets up to be a dramatic game, even without the specter of it being -- for the third straight week -- Ray Lewis' last football game. "He's like the godfather of football,'' Vince Wilfork said.
But the game would have been so much better if Peyton Manning was in the game. That's just a fact. Somehow, we move on.
NFC Championship Game: San Francisco (12-4-1) at Atlanta (14-3), Sunday, 3 p.m. Okay, we've gotten the obvious storylines out of the way. Tony Gonzalez breaks the 15-year schneid of no playoff wins.
As Tony Gonzalez said earlier this year to Peter King, the fact he had not won a playoff game doesn't affect his legacy. Gonzalez isn't a quarterback so his legacy is secure. I will ask you again to imagine if Terrell Owens said he isn't a quarterback so a playoff victory doesn't affect his legacy. It's a good thing Gonzalez has a good relationship with the media (and Peter King) or else Peter would have found a way to turn this quote around on him.
Now the storyline the world will be bludgeoned with this week is how Atlanta will defend Kaepernick, who appeared indefensible against Green Bay behind the best offensive line in the league.
Considering the Falcons have had trouble stopping the run overall, I would probably worry just as much about Frank Gore and how they plan on stopping him.
Atlanta linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said Sunday. "Sacked him once --and believe me, I consider that a great accomplishment. I thought he was like ... Vince Young. This will be the ultimate test for our defense.''
The Falcons wish Kaepernick was like Vince Young. Then he couldn't throw the ball accurately and he would no longer be a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Four storylines of the weekend:
Manning goes down in flames (with an asterisk).
The asterisk being he didn't singlehandedly lose the game? Or is the asterisk that Manning threw the overtime interception that gave the Ravens good field position, but Peter doesn't want to completely blame him for this?
And while we're at it, Denver coaches, you've got 3rd-and-7 at your 47 at the two-minute warning. Baltimore's out of timeouts. You've got one of the greatest third-down-conversion quarterbacks ever, with two tight ends he trusts implicitly. And you run your third tailback into the middle of the line? Seriously?
It absolutely shocks me that national writers like Peter King are shocked John Fox and the Denver coaches made this decision. It's almost like they ignored how Fox coached the entire time he was the head coach for Carolina. Absolutely he is going to do the conservative thing and not take a chance to not run time off the clock. It doesn't matter if Peyton Manning is the quarterback or God himself is the quarterback. Conservative is always the right approach for Fox. I don't care that Manning said he called an audible to the run, because it's a typical Fox-call. In fact, Fox said himself that audible was his call.
Then, with 31 seconds and two timeouts left at your 20, the game now tied, Manning kneels? Double seriously?
Peter, there is a team in Carolina you could have watched for nine years and seen how John Fox coached. This should not shock you. Fox is a great head coach, but he will always lean towards being conservative. His most infamous quote is "a punt is not a bad play." He should get criticism, but anyone who follows the NFL and is a national writer should not be shocked either. Fox would rather rely on the toss of a coin than his Hall of Fame quarterback to make good decisions with 31 seconds left and holding two timeouts at home in the playoffs. That's the kind of head coach he has been for 11 years. I've seen too many third-down draws and end-of-half kneel downs to expect anything different from Fox.
I don't think Fox lost the game for the Broncos and that's my point. He played to where he his decision wouldn't lose the game for his team, but where one of his decisions also wouldn't potentially win the game for his team. His being conservative only slightly hurt the Broncos, but a head coach can't always play not to lose the game. I don't have as much of a problem with the run calls to give the ball back to the Ravens with no timeouts. I have a bigger problem with relying on a coin flip more than relying on a Hall of Fame quarterback to be able to gain 45-50 yards with two timeouts and knowing Matt Prater is your kicker. Fox didn't lose the game for the Broncos, but he also put them in a position to where they didn't have as much control as to whether they won the game or not.
I'm serious: Either Peyton Manning was injured and the Broncos told no one, or that's Coaching Negligence 101.
It certainly sounded smarter for Fox to make this decision when his quarterback was Jake Delhomme or one of the multiple jokes for a quarterback he trotted out at starting quarterback over the years.
"That was an audible,'' Manning said of the 3rd-and-7 Hillman run. "Don't put that on [offensive coordinator] Mike McCoy.'' Okay. I still don't like it.
Peyton Manning is the kind of guy who would defend his coaches. Jim Caldwell was his head coach for several years and he never once complained that Caldwell was over his head.
Fourteen minutes into overtime, Manning had a 2nd-and-6 at the Denver 38. He rolled right, looking for good friend and first-down security blanket Brandon Stokley, and he slightly pivoted to throw back across his body. Now, raise your hand if you thought what I thought when Manning's arm was in motion and he looked to throw back across his body ... Brett Favre, 2009 NFC title game, aiming for Sidney Rice, and Tracy Porter steps in front of him and picks it off.
The fact Peter would draw a parallel to the Favre throw against the Saints a few years ago was correctly called in the comments on Saturday. In fairness, nearly everything that happens on the football field reminds Peter King of something Brett Favre did. His obsession with Favre runs deep.
He had plenty of help, but the fact is, Manning's a 9-11 playoff quarterback with one Super Bowl victory who turns 37 in March, and he knows there aren't going to be many more chances.
9-11 in the playoffs. He won a Super Bowl ring in the playoffs when he didn't have a passer rating above 82 in a single playoff game. That's part of Manning's legacy.
Keep these things in mind after Kaepernick's eighth NFL start, the 14-point rout of the Packers, in which he set the NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback (181) in a game:
• Blaine Gabbert was chosen 26 picks ahead of Kaerpernick.
Keep this in mind as well...much of Kaepernick's success is contributed to the fact the 49ers coaching staff is being smart and playing to his strengths and putting him in a position to succeed. I won't argue Blaine Gabbert is great or can even be considered in the same breath as Colin Kaepernick, but he also wasn't given a chance to succeed like Kaepernick has. Kaepernick is a great example of what good coaching can help a young quarterback achieve.
No quarterback GQs it like Matt Ryan. When I met him one night at the Scouting Combine in 2008, he wore a dark suit, blue Oxford shirt, and dress shoes. Yesterday, after the biggest win of his life, he wore a suit, thin tie with tie clasp. Par for his course. The theory is, as with many quarterbacks these days, Ryan represents the company, and he wants the public to see the best side of him.
Good to know. Somehow I have lived my entire life without knowing this information.
In the past, he'd still watched college basketball and the occasional SportsCenter during January. No more sports. No more newspapers, websites or talk radio either. He spent the last two weeks being blissfully unaware of his surroundings.
"What'd you watch instead?'' a few scribes wondered in a small cluster with the natty Ryan Sunday.
What the fuck is a "natty Ryan" you may ask? Glad to tell you. Natty is defined as:
"marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners;"
It appears Peter King is fixated on Matt Ryan's appearance.
He seemed embarrassed for a second. "TMZ, a little bit,'' he said. "The NFL's so big, it's hard to completely ignore it, but I tried."
But he liked the sports ban. He liked not hearing the public outcry about do-or-die for this current iteration of the Falcons. "Sometimes,'' he said, "it's good to be naïve."
So because Matt Ryan watched "TMZ" instead of football he won a playoff game. It's an important lesson to all you kids out there. If you can find a bullshit reason why something worked for you, then share it with the world so everyone else can feel better about their own stupid superstitions.
"I'm happiest for Matt,'' said Gonzalez. "People talk about the pressure for people to win a playoff game, and when they'd mention me, I'd think, I'm on the bottom. Matt Ryan needed this, and he went out and did it.''
Well, at least Gonzalez is consistent in stating that a quarterback needs to win a playoff game and the fact he had never won a playoff game never reflected poorly on him. One point for consistency and two points for honesty.
On Tuesday, at a CBS Super Bowl media event, Newsday's Neil Best asked Bill Cowher if he planned to coach again one day. "Yeah,'' Cowher said. "It would be a challenge, but I think that's probably why I would get back into it, because of the challenge.''
On Saturday, on The NFL Today, on CBS, Cowher said: "Contrary to reports, I have no plans on coaching. I plan on being with one team, and that is this team here at CBS."
That's what I love to see: a man dispelling a rumor about himself that he started.
Bill Parcells perfected the art of interviewing for open positions and then denying it strongly until he took the position and it seems Bill Cowher is trying to perfect the art of refuting reports that he starts with his own comments.
Fine Fifteen
1. San Francisco (12-4-1). Seahawks held the Niners to 13 points in each regular season meeting. That's a good reason San Francisco breathes a sigh to be facing Atlanta in the NFC title game -- even if it's on the road -- instead of playing Seattle at home in Candlestick Park.
I have a hard time believing the 49ers would rather play a road game than have to face the Seahawks at home. The Seahawks are a good team, but a road game versus a home game for the NFC Championship? Seems to me like a home game wins every time.
3. Baltimore (12-6). A bit unfair, but true: Joe Flacco, seven playoff wins in five years; Peyton Manning, nine playoff wins in 14 years. Flacco tries to make it eight Sunday against the Patriots.
Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about Joe Flacco, but is this really unfair? I realize Manning went up against Brady a few times, but is it really unfair to mention Flacco has seven playoff wins in five years and Manning has nine playoff wins in 14 years? This isn't an overwhelmingly telling statistic, but it does tell us a little something doesn't it?
7. Denver (13-4). Everything seemed to come so hard for the Broncos Saturday. I'll always think Peyton Manning should have loosened up the secondary more with deep throws.
No way. The expert announcers said repeatedly that Peyton was doing well by taking what the Ravens defense was giving him. He's unstoppable. The Ravens show they are defending the run, he set up the pass, the Ravens show they expect pass, he audibles to a run. He's an unstoppable machine who never needs to throw deep. Plus, it's not like there is anything wrong with Peyton's arm, at least until we find out later this offseason he couldn't throw the ball more than 20 yards in the air without pain.
8. Green Bay (12-6). Not to be a sports radio host or anything, but watching the Green Bay defense look so powerless and feeble Saturday, I wondered if Mike McCarthy would seriously think about replacing Dom Capers as defensive coordinator.
How about replacing the Packers defenders who couldn't get to the quarterback or contain Colin Kaepernick?
13. Chicago (10-6). The Bears have had more coaching interviews in 2013 than wins in 2012. By my count, it's 13-10.
Because doing a thorough coaching search to make sure you have the right guy for the position isn't smart. Make a decision and make it quickly, Chicago Bears organization, so that Peter King and his fellow sportswriters can have something to write about. Thinking about the right candidate and ensuring a certain guy is the right choice for head coach should always be second to Peter's next deadline.
15. St. Louis (7-8-1). TheRamsversus NFC West this year: 4-1-1, plus-30 in point differential.
Keep hyping the Rams up for next year, Peter. It's not like you and Jeff Fisher share an agent or anything, so it doesn't seem fishy at all when you write overly positive about them. Is Gregg Williams' son, the defensive genius belting out those defensive play-calls in Training Camp, in the running for any head coaching vacancies? Oh wait, he got fired because nobody like him? That's no problem, I am sure the NFL good ol' boy network will keep helping him fail upwards like they have helped Todd Haley do.
"The Seahawks are my new favorite team."
-- Brett Favre, in a text to Seattle kicker Ryan Longwell, sent Tuesday, a couple of days after the injury in Washington to Steven Hauschka on Jan. 6. Longwell is a close friend of Favre's, and was one of the three Vikingswho flew to Mississippi to persuade Favre to return to the Vikings for one last season in 2010.
Here's a nice shoe-horned Brett Favre reference for everyone to enjoy. Nothing interests me less than to hear what Brett Favre has to say about pretty much any topic. Peter's obsession with Favre is never-ending.
Also, what is up with Peter's punctuation in this MMQB? This is the second or third time he has had words run together in the final copy of MMQB. That's basic spell-check shit that Sports Illustrated should have corrected before MMQB gets published.
Offensive Players of the Week
Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore.
It was a 3rd-and-13 pass to tight end Dennis Pitta that flipped the field. Instead of the Ravens having to punt from the back of their end zone in overtime and giving Peyton Manning a short field to work with, with only a field goal needed to win the game, Flacco hit Pitta for 24 yards. And by the time Baltimore punted, the Ravens pinned the Broncos at the Denver 7 ... and soon, Manning would throw the interception that put a dagger through Colorado's heart.
Again, you all know how I feel about Joe Flacco. In no way was I ever confident he could convert this third-down and I didn't trust him all game, but that throw to Dennis Pitta was a thing of beauty. Obviously it was also a great catch by Pitta, but the way Flacco recognized the coverage and throw the ball perfectly over the defender's shoulders into Pitta's arms was so nice. I think I will go back to completely not trusting Flacco this upcoming week though. I thought he could have a great game against the Broncos, but I'm not so confident this week.
Defensive Players of the Week
Rob Ninkovich, LB, New England. With the Pats holding a 24-13 lead in the third quarter but pesky Houston driving, Ninkovich, this Patriots generation's Mike Vrabel-esque big-playmaker, leaped high to snare an interception from Matt Schaub.
Off-topic though...I read on Twitter a comment that said Matt Schaub is good enough to get his team into the playoffs, but not good enough to win too many games in the playoffs. I think I have to agree. He's right on the cusp of being considered elite, but he isn't there, and he doesn't have an attribute (like running ability) that can take him from being just outside of elite to elite. Maybe I'm not making sense. He isn't a great passer like Tom Brady, but he also doesn't have the running ability of Aaron Rodgers. It's like trying to build an NBA team around Joe Johnson. With the right players it gets you far, but he's just below elite to where he can't get you to where you want to go.
In fact, earlier this year in one of my "...Pets' Heads" weekly roundups I mentioned I didn't think Alex Smith could win a Super Bowl for the 49ers. I even did a whole listing of quarterbacks in the past 25 years that won the Super Bowl and didn't believe Alex Smith fit. I think Jim Harbaugh felt the same way and knew he would need to make a change at quarterback to get past where he wanted the 49ers team to go. I didn't think Smith should lose his job due to a concussion, and still don't, but I can't argue with the results. Kaepernick has speed that allows him to bring another element to the 49ers offense and Harbaugh knew if he stayed with Smith the 49ers would be good, but possibly not good enough.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Trindon Holliday, PR/KR, Denver. Holliday was a revelation for the Broncos after being picked up on waivers from Houston and handed the kick and punt return duties. Saturday was his 11th game for Denver, and his 90-yard punt return for touchdown in the first quarter was his third touchdown return.
I think that is what was so impressive about the Ravens defense and disconcerting for the Broncos defense. The Broncos scored 35 points, but 14 of those points came on special teams. So if Holliday didn't make history it isn't even a close game. 21 points should be enough to win a game of course, but it wasn't, and it wasn't entirely the fault of the Broncos offense.
Goats of the Week
Rahim Moore, FS, Denver.
Peyton Manning, QB, Denver. For the throw he'll be beating himself up about all offseason, the across-his-body, very weak throw that Corey Graham intercepted in overtime Saturday.
That was a terrible throw by Manning, but I think Rahim Moore is higher in the pecking order. If Moore does his job then the game may never go to overtime. In an alternative universe where Jacoby Jones gets tackled by Rahim Moore don't forget the Ravens offensive linemen would have to run down the field and get set before Flacco could spike the ball. I'm guessing that would have at least taken 15-20 seconds off the clock. Simply not even making a play on the ball and waiting to tackle Jones after he caught the ball was better than trying to make the interception. It was just a terrible play by Moore and the very reason Manning was in a position to throw the interception to Corey Graham.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I have this reaction to getting back out on the NFL road for the playoffs after a season mostly in the NBC studios: Road, I've missed you.
We don't miss hearing about how annoying the road is though, Peter. Think about your readers who have to hear about how every little luxury isn't perfectly laid out at every single hotel you stayed in during a road trip. Think about us before you go back on the road and get hysterically upset at the idea of there being no coffee at exactly 6:00am every morning.
First Taurus rental in years. Nice space-age control panel with SiriusXM Radio ...
But Peter, the big question is whether you took the time to put gas back in the car before you turned the rental car back in? Or did this rental car company screw you out of money by overcharging you for gas that you were too lazy to pump on your own?
"We should be arriving in 15 minutes,'' the pilot said on approach to the Atlanta airport. "Temperature in Atlanta is 63 degrees." ... In the span of one evening and a morning in the air, I've gone from five layers in Denver to my Winnipeg Jets polo walking into the Georgia Dome. Stupidly, of course. Put the darn thing on Sunday morning forgetting that the Atlanta Thrashers turned into the Winnipeg Jets, and a couple of media folks gave a look like, "You couldn't have worn something a little less offensive here today?''
Ah, it's just the South who cares, right Peter? Everyone in the South is too busy being racist, beating their wife, trying to seduce their sister, and owning 10 guns to worry about what some Yankee-boy is wearing at a football game. Nobody in the South even likes hockey, so Atlanta wouldn't be bitter about losing the Thrashers.
1. I think this is what I liked about the conference semifinal weekend:
a. Saturday. Wow. Incredible theater in Denver, and Kaepernick runs wild in San Francisco. That was about six straight hours of captivating football.
It was six hours of captivating football since the Broncos-Ravens game went into overtime. This is not including some of the second half of the Packers-49ers game. It was fun to watch Kaepernick do his thing, but the outcome of the game wasn't really in doubt, so I wouldn't say the game was captivating.
f. Joe Flacco's complete and utter disregard for caring about his contract -- at least publicly. Refreshing.
I don't completely get this comment. Flacco has been having his agent speak for him most of the time in regard to his contract. That's his job. His agent spoke up again on Monday about Flacco being elite. Flacco does care about his contract, which is why his agent is politicking for him to be considered an elite top-five quarterback.
l. Tony Gonzalez getting the monkey -- "no, it's a gorilla'' -- off his back, finally winning a playoff game in his 16th starry season.
What gorilla on Gonzalez's back? He has said to Peter King directly, he doesn't think winning a playoff game changes his legacy nor does it affect him negatively in any way if he never won a playoff game. I don't know how much clearer Gonzalez could have been in talking with Peter King about this. Yet, Peter still thinks Gonzalez got a gorilla off his back.
2. I think this is what I didn't like about conference semifinal weekend:
b. Houston releasing Trindon Holliday in Week 6. All he's been since is the most productive return man in football, with four touchdowns.
That didn't really happen this past weekend. I will allow it, but this seems more like something Peter wouldn't like about Week 6 of the NFL season. Wait, that's right. Peter didn't say anything at all in Week 6 about the Texans releasing Trindon Holliday.
f. Denver turning more arch-conservative than Bill O'Reilly Saturday.
For the 100th time, this is John Fox's M.O. Since Peter has covered the NFL for Fox's entire 11 year head coaching career, he has to have noticed Fox's conservativeness prior to Saturday.
i. Matt Schaub's inconsistency. Not time to throw him out -- particularly after signing him to a new contract in September -- but time to worry about his play.
Schaub is going to be 32 years old at the start of next season. He probably isn't changing or getting any better. He is what he is. If the Texans are worried about his play, I have a feeling his play won't improve as he gets closer to his mid-30's. The best option might be to put more talent around him on offense.
3. I think I liked what Cris Collinsworth said the other night on Showtime's Inside the NFL. Clearly uncomfortable with what he saw in Washington keeping a hobbled Robert Griffin III in the Wild Card playoff game against Seattle eight days ago, Collinsworth proposed this for every NFL sideline: "I think there should be two doctors. I think there should be a team doctor and there should be a players' doctor that is voted on every team.
I like people who have ideas. This isn't a terrible idea, but Robert Griffin insisted on being in that game and I am sure his Redskins teammates weren't going to stop him from being in the game if Griffin insisted he could play. So the player doctor would probably have allowed Griffin to go back into the game because that's most likely what Griffin and the Redskins team wanted. Like I said, it's not a terrible idea, but I don't know if the players have a doctor of their own then it would have prevented Griffin from going back on the field.
8. I think it would be hard for me to go to the office today, or anytime soon, if I were Mike Zimmer.
There has to be a reason Zimmer hasn't gotten a head coaching job or gotten to interview for many open positions. I don't know what it is, but there has to be a reason. It seems Zimmer is one of the media's favorite head coaching candidates and they are going to push for him until he is hired.
h. Coffeenerdness: Thanks, Caffe Fiore, in my daughter's Seattle neighborhood, for the great latte Thursday morning. Excellent espresso. Jolting.
Caffe Fiore, a company that isn't able to speak or hear the praise Peter King is sending, says "thank you."
j. Re the Baseball Hall of Fame: I'm just a fan of the game, so I can't tell you my vote would be qualified for anything but an argument at a bar. But I'd probably have voted for Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio, at least. It does bug me when guys who've drawn suspicion for using PEDs but never had anything proven-- like Piazza -- get nixed despite having a good Hall of Fame resume. What country are we in anyway? And I've just always loved the speed, the consistency, the approach to the game that Biggio brought for so many years.
k. But ... and this is a big "but" ... the voters, at least most of them, know things I don't about the players. It's their province, not mine.
These voters don't necessarily know anything about these players. Guys like Murray Chass are just guessing like the rest of us. The only that Murray Chass knows is that he has a high-horse and a Hall of Fame vote, so he'll be damned if he isn't going to vote based on his own preconceived notions.
The Adieu Haiku
Peyton and playoffs.
Nine and eleven. That hurts.
But numbers don't lie.
I don't know why Peter started doing haikus. I just don't know why. Maybe he was desperately looking for a signature way of ending MMQB and thought a Japanese poem was the best way to go about ending it. I think the best way to end it is to just not do a haiku. Any other way would be acceptable.
Ray Lewis was sick Saturday night, 90 minutes after the Ravens had stunned the Broncos here, and he was waiting in a stadium anteroom to be connected with Deion Sanders for an NFL Network interview. "Flu?'' someone asked him. He nodded in the midst of a coughing jag, said he'd had it all week, sounding like a Contagion victim.
Which is a very good movie Peter King might add. There wasn't much levity and no Meryl Streep appearances, but otherwise a good film.
Most often it's a handshake, a few whispered words, a hug, and one is off to his team bus and the other off to his life. This was longer. This was one of the greatest linebackers of all time, in the last month of his football life, and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, after one of his toughest losses, who had to say goodbye to Lewis.
And saying this one of the toughest losses of Peyton Manning's life is saying a lot. He's had quite a few tough playoff losses. There is good news though. John Fox didn't have to use those last two timeouts at the end of regulation and get out of his comfort zone by being aggressive. As Vince Lombardi always said, "It's better to rely on the flip of a coin in overtime than to rely on one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history with two timeouts in his pocket playing a home playoff game." It's very, very important to stay in one's comfort zone and not risk doing something aggressive that could lose a playoff game.
Ray Lewis in, Peyton Manning out. Colin Kaepernick in, Aaron Rodgers out. Tony Gonzalez in (more importantly to a very fidgety fandom, Matt Ryan in), the ridiculously charismatic Russell Wilson out. Tom Brady in, Arian Foster out. No Brady-Manning XIV this weekend, but who won't watch Lewis chase the Brady hurry-up offense.
There's no question mark at the end of this sentence. Apparently "...who won't watch Lewis chase the Brady hurry-up offense" isn't a question but a statement.
And Seahawks-Niners III would have been a San Francisco treat, but I'll take the NFL's fastest-rising star since Tebow,
Good job shoehorning that Tebow reference into this column Peter. God knows there haven't been any rising stars other than Tebow over the last year (I can name five off the top of my head) and your audience probably isn't tired at all of Tebow coverage. Way to know your audience.
The championship weekend lineup's pretty good, even without Manning.
Even without Manning? It's going to be hard for these conference championship games to be any good if the media can't hype up the matchups with easily found and somewhat contrived storylines, but I guess we should just watch the games and hope they are enjoyable. Really, without Manning we should probably cancel the playoffs, but it's too late for that now.
Not much is different for the Ravens from the 23-20 loss last year in the title game, other than the two men who had forgettable last minutes of the game, kicker Billy Cundiff (shanked a 32-yard field goal attempt) and wideout Lee Evans (had the winning touchdown pass chopped out of his hands), are out, and Justin Tucker and Jacoby Jones are in.
Not much is different? The Patriots and Ravens aren't completely different teams, but some important things have changed. The Patriots have run the ball well this year with Steven Ridley and have Brandon Lloyd as a deep threat now. The Ravens didn't have Bernard Pierce to help share the load with Ray Rice last year and Torrey Smith has become an even better wide receiver and deep threat. The two teams aren't dramatically different, but I wouldn't say "not much" is different since the Ravens and Patriots defenses have a different look about them in terms of personnel, in addition to the offensive personnel changes the teams have seen.
So the seventh conference title game in the Belichick-Brady Era sets up to be a dramatic game, even without the specter of it being -- for the third straight week -- Ray Lewis' last football game. "He's like the godfather of football,'' Vince Wilfork said.
But the game would have been so much better if Peyton Manning was in the game. That's just a fact. Somehow, we move on.
NFC Championship Game: San Francisco (12-4-1) at Atlanta (14-3), Sunday, 3 p.m. Okay, we've gotten the obvious storylines out of the way. Tony Gonzalez breaks the 15-year schneid of no playoff wins.
As Tony Gonzalez said earlier this year to Peter King, the fact he had not won a playoff game doesn't affect his legacy. Gonzalez isn't a quarterback so his legacy is secure. I will ask you again to imagine if Terrell Owens said he isn't a quarterback so a playoff victory doesn't affect his legacy. It's a good thing Gonzalez has a good relationship with the media (and Peter King) or else Peter would have found a way to turn this quote around on him.
Now the storyline the world will be bludgeoned with this week is how Atlanta will defend Kaepernick, who appeared indefensible against Green Bay behind the best offensive line in the league.
Considering the Falcons have had trouble stopping the run overall, I would probably worry just as much about Frank Gore and how they plan on stopping him.
Atlanta linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said Sunday. "Sacked him once --and believe me, I consider that a great accomplishment. I thought he was like ... Vince Young. This will be the ultimate test for our defense.''
The Falcons wish Kaepernick was like Vince Young. Then he couldn't throw the ball accurately and he would no longer be a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Four storylines of the weekend:
Manning goes down in flames (with an asterisk).
The asterisk being he didn't singlehandedly lose the game? Or is the asterisk that Manning threw the overtime interception that gave the Ravens good field position, but Peter doesn't want to completely blame him for this?
And while we're at it, Denver coaches, you've got 3rd-and-7 at your 47 at the two-minute warning. Baltimore's out of timeouts. You've got one of the greatest third-down-conversion quarterbacks ever, with two tight ends he trusts implicitly. And you run your third tailback into the middle of the line? Seriously?
It absolutely shocks me that national writers like Peter King are shocked John Fox and the Denver coaches made this decision. It's almost like they ignored how Fox coached the entire time he was the head coach for Carolina. Absolutely he is going to do the conservative thing and not take a chance to not run time off the clock. It doesn't matter if Peyton Manning is the quarterback or God himself is the quarterback. Conservative is always the right approach for Fox. I don't care that Manning said he called an audible to the run, because it's a typical Fox-call. In fact, Fox said himself that audible was his call.
Then, with 31 seconds and two timeouts left at your 20, the game now tied, Manning kneels? Double seriously?
Peter, there is a team in Carolina you could have watched for nine years and seen how John Fox coached. This should not shock you. Fox is a great head coach, but he will always lean towards being conservative. His most infamous quote is "a punt is not a bad play." He should get criticism, but anyone who follows the NFL and is a national writer should not be shocked either. Fox would rather rely on the toss of a coin than his Hall of Fame quarterback to make good decisions with 31 seconds left and holding two timeouts at home in the playoffs. That's the kind of head coach he has been for 11 years. I've seen too many third-down draws and end-of-half kneel downs to expect anything different from Fox.
I don't think Fox lost the game for the Broncos and that's my point. He played to where he his decision wouldn't lose the game for his team, but where one of his decisions also wouldn't potentially win the game for his team. His being conservative only slightly hurt the Broncos, but a head coach can't always play not to lose the game. I don't have as much of a problem with the run calls to give the ball back to the Ravens with no timeouts. I have a bigger problem with relying on a coin flip more than relying on a Hall of Fame quarterback to be able to gain 45-50 yards with two timeouts and knowing Matt Prater is your kicker. Fox didn't lose the game for the Broncos, but he also put them in a position to where they didn't have as much control as to whether they won the game or not.
I'm serious: Either Peyton Manning was injured and the Broncos told no one, or that's Coaching Negligence 101.
It certainly sounded smarter for Fox to make this decision when his quarterback was Jake Delhomme or one of the multiple jokes for a quarterback he trotted out at starting quarterback over the years.
"That was an audible,'' Manning said of the 3rd-and-7 Hillman run. "Don't put that on [offensive coordinator] Mike McCoy.'' Okay. I still don't like it.
Peyton Manning is the kind of guy who would defend his coaches. Jim Caldwell was his head coach for several years and he never once complained that Caldwell was over his head.
Fourteen minutes into overtime, Manning had a 2nd-and-6 at the Denver 38. He rolled right, looking for good friend and first-down security blanket Brandon Stokley, and he slightly pivoted to throw back across his body. Now, raise your hand if you thought what I thought when Manning's arm was in motion and he looked to throw back across his body ... Brett Favre, 2009 NFC title game, aiming for Sidney Rice, and Tracy Porter steps in front of him and picks it off.
The fact Peter would draw a parallel to the Favre throw against the Saints a few years ago was correctly called in the comments on Saturday. In fairness, nearly everything that happens on the football field reminds Peter King of something Brett Favre did. His obsession with Favre runs deep.
He had plenty of help, but the fact is, Manning's a 9-11 playoff quarterback with one Super Bowl victory who turns 37 in March, and he knows there aren't going to be many more chances.
9-11 in the playoffs. He won a Super Bowl ring in the playoffs when he didn't have a passer rating above 82 in a single playoff game. That's part of Manning's legacy.
Keep these things in mind after Kaepernick's eighth NFL start, the 14-point rout of the Packers, in which he set the NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback (181) in a game:
• Blaine Gabbert was chosen 26 picks ahead of Kaerpernick.
Keep this in mind as well...much of Kaepernick's success is contributed to the fact the 49ers coaching staff is being smart and playing to his strengths and putting him in a position to succeed. I won't argue Blaine Gabbert is great or can even be considered in the same breath as Colin Kaepernick, but he also wasn't given a chance to succeed like Kaepernick has. Kaepernick is a great example of what good coaching can help a young quarterback achieve.
No quarterback GQs it like Matt Ryan. When I met him one night at the Scouting Combine in 2008, he wore a dark suit, blue Oxford shirt, and dress shoes. Yesterday, after the biggest win of his life, he wore a suit, thin tie with tie clasp. Par for his course. The theory is, as with many quarterbacks these days, Ryan represents the company, and he wants the public to see the best side of him.
Good to know. Somehow I have lived my entire life without knowing this information.
In the past, he'd still watched college basketball and the occasional SportsCenter during January. No more sports. No more newspapers, websites or talk radio either. He spent the last two weeks being blissfully unaware of his surroundings.
"What'd you watch instead?'' a few scribes wondered in a small cluster with the natty Ryan Sunday.
What the fuck is a "natty Ryan" you may ask? Glad to tell you. Natty is defined as:
"marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners;"
It appears Peter King is fixated on Matt Ryan's appearance.
He seemed embarrassed for a second. "TMZ, a little bit,'' he said. "The NFL's so big, it's hard to completely ignore it, but I tried."
But he liked the sports ban. He liked not hearing the public outcry about do-or-die for this current iteration of the Falcons. "Sometimes,'' he said, "it's good to be naïve."
So because Matt Ryan watched "TMZ" instead of football he won a playoff game. It's an important lesson to all you kids out there. If you can find a bullshit reason why something worked for you, then share it with the world so everyone else can feel better about their own stupid superstitions.
"I'm happiest for Matt,'' said Gonzalez. "People talk about the pressure for people to win a playoff game, and when they'd mention me, I'd think, I'm on the bottom. Matt Ryan needed this, and he went out and did it.''
Well, at least Gonzalez is consistent in stating that a quarterback needs to win a playoff game and the fact he had never won a playoff game never reflected poorly on him. One point for consistency and two points for honesty.
On Tuesday, at a CBS Super Bowl media event, Newsday's Neil Best asked Bill Cowher if he planned to coach again one day. "Yeah,'' Cowher said. "It would be a challenge, but I think that's probably why I would get back into it, because of the challenge.''
On Saturday, on The NFL Today, on CBS, Cowher said: "Contrary to reports, I have no plans on coaching. I plan on being with one team, and that is this team here at CBS."
That's what I love to see: a man dispelling a rumor about himself that he started.
Bill Parcells perfected the art of interviewing for open positions and then denying it strongly until he took the position and it seems Bill Cowher is trying to perfect the art of refuting reports that he starts with his own comments.
Fine Fifteen
1. San Francisco (12-4-1). Seahawks held the Niners to 13 points in each regular season meeting. That's a good reason San Francisco breathes a sigh to be facing Atlanta in the NFC title game -- even if it's on the road -- instead of playing Seattle at home in Candlestick Park.
I have a hard time believing the 49ers would rather play a road game than have to face the Seahawks at home. The Seahawks are a good team, but a road game versus a home game for the NFC Championship? Seems to me like a home game wins every time.
3. Baltimore (12-6). A bit unfair, but true: Joe Flacco, seven playoff wins in five years; Peyton Manning, nine playoff wins in 14 years. Flacco tries to make it eight Sunday against the Patriots.
Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about Joe Flacco, but is this really unfair? I realize Manning went up against Brady a few times, but is it really unfair to mention Flacco has seven playoff wins in five years and Manning has nine playoff wins in 14 years? This isn't an overwhelmingly telling statistic, but it does tell us a little something doesn't it?
7. Denver (13-4). Everything seemed to come so hard for the Broncos Saturday. I'll always think Peyton Manning should have loosened up the secondary more with deep throws.
No way. The expert announcers said repeatedly that Peyton was doing well by taking what the Ravens defense was giving him. He's unstoppable. The Ravens show they are defending the run, he set up the pass, the Ravens show they expect pass, he audibles to a run. He's an unstoppable machine who never needs to throw deep. Plus, it's not like there is anything wrong with Peyton's arm, at least until we find out later this offseason he couldn't throw the ball more than 20 yards in the air without pain.
8. Green Bay (12-6). Not to be a sports radio host or anything, but watching the Green Bay defense look so powerless and feeble Saturday, I wondered if Mike McCarthy would seriously think about replacing Dom Capers as defensive coordinator.
How about replacing the Packers defenders who couldn't get to the quarterback or contain Colin Kaepernick?
13. Chicago (10-6). The Bears have had more coaching interviews in 2013 than wins in 2012. By my count, it's 13-10.
Because doing a thorough coaching search to make sure you have the right guy for the position isn't smart. Make a decision and make it quickly, Chicago Bears organization, so that Peter King and his fellow sportswriters can have something to write about. Thinking about the right candidate and ensuring a certain guy is the right choice for head coach should always be second to Peter's next deadline.
15. St. Louis (7-8-1). TheRamsversus NFC West this year: 4-1-1, plus-30 in point differential.
Keep hyping the Rams up for next year, Peter. It's not like you and Jeff Fisher share an agent or anything, so it doesn't seem fishy at all when you write overly positive about them. Is Gregg Williams' son, the defensive genius belting out those defensive play-calls in Training Camp, in the running for any head coaching vacancies? Oh wait, he got fired because nobody like him? That's no problem, I am sure the NFL good ol' boy network will keep helping him fail upwards like they have helped Todd Haley do.
"The Seahawks are my new favorite team."
-- Brett Favre, in a text to Seattle kicker Ryan Longwell, sent Tuesday, a couple of days after the injury in Washington to Steven Hauschka on Jan. 6. Longwell is a close friend of Favre's, and was one of the three Vikingswho flew to Mississippi to persuade Favre to return to the Vikings for one last season in 2010.
Here's a nice shoe-horned Brett Favre reference for everyone to enjoy. Nothing interests me less than to hear what Brett Favre has to say about pretty much any topic. Peter's obsession with Favre is never-ending.
Also, what is up with Peter's punctuation in this MMQB? This is the second or third time he has had words run together in the final copy of MMQB. That's basic spell-check shit that Sports Illustrated should have corrected before MMQB gets published.
Offensive Players of the Week
Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore.
It was a 3rd-and-13 pass to tight end Dennis Pitta that flipped the field. Instead of the Ravens having to punt from the back of their end zone in overtime and giving Peyton Manning a short field to work with, with only a field goal needed to win the game, Flacco hit Pitta for 24 yards. And by the time Baltimore punted, the Ravens pinned the Broncos at the Denver 7 ... and soon, Manning would throw the interception that put a dagger through Colorado's heart.
Again, you all know how I feel about Joe Flacco. In no way was I ever confident he could convert this third-down and I didn't trust him all game, but that throw to Dennis Pitta was a thing of beauty. Obviously it was also a great catch by Pitta, but the way Flacco recognized the coverage and throw the ball perfectly over the defender's shoulders into Pitta's arms was so nice. I think I will go back to completely not trusting Flacco this upcoming week though. I thought he could have a great game against the Broncos, but I'm not so confident this week.
Defensive Players of the Week
Rob Ninkovich, LB, New England. With the Pats holding a 24-13 lead in the third quarter but pesky Houston driving, Ninkovich, this Patriots generation's Mike Vrabel-esque big-playmaker, leaped high to snare an interception from Matt Schaub.
Off-topic though...I read on Twitter a comment that said Matt Schaub is good enough to get his team into the playoffs, but not good enough to win too many games in the playoffs. I think I have to agree. He's right on the cusp of being considered elite, but he isn't there, and he doesn't have an attribute (like running ability) that can take him from being just outside of elite to elite. Maybe I'm not making sense. He isn't a great passer like Tom Brady, but he also doesn't have the running ability of Aaron Rodgers. It's like trying to build an NBA team around Joe Johnson. With the right players it gets you far, but he's just below elite to where he can't get you to where you want to go.
In fact, earlier this year in one of my "...Pets' Heads" weekly roundups I mentioned I didn't think Alex Smith could win a Super Bowl for the 49ers. I even did a whole listing of quarterbacks in the past 25 years that won the Super Bowl and didn't believe Alex Smith fit. I think Jim Harbaugh felt the same way and knew he would need to make a change at quarterback to get past where he wanted the 49ers team to go. I didn't think Smith should lose his job due to a concussion, and still don't, but I can't argue with the results. Kaepernick has speed that allows him to bring another element to the 49ers offense and Harbaugh knew if he stayed with Smith the 49ers would be good, but possibly not good enough.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Trindon Holliday, PR/KR, Denver. Holliday was a revelation for the Broncos after being picked up on waivers from Houston and handed the kick and punt return duties. Saturday was his 11th game for Denver, and his 90-yard punt return for touchdown in the first quarter was his third touchdown return.
I think that is what was so impressive about the Ravens defense and disconcerting for the Broncos defense. The Broncos scored 35 points, but 14 of those points came on special teams. So if Holliday didn't make history it isn't even a close game. 21 points should be enough to win a game of course, but it wasn't, and it wasn't entirely the fault of the Broncos offense.
Goats of the Week
Rahim Moore, FS, Denver.
Peyton Manning, QB, Denver. For the throw he'll be beating himself up about all offseason, the across-his-body, very weak throw that Corey Graham intercepted in overtime Saturday.
That was a terrible throw by Manning, but I think Rahim Moore is higher in the pecking order. If Moore does his job then the game may never go to overtime. In an alternative universe where Jacoby Jones gets tackled by Rahim Moore don't forget the Ravens offensive linemen would have to run down the field and get set before Flacco could spike the ball. I'm guessing that would have at least taken 15-20 seconds off the clock. Simply not even making a play on the ball and waiting to tackle Jones after he caught the ball was better than trying to make the interception. It was just a terrible play by Moore and the very reason Manning was in a position to throw the interception to Corey Graham.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I have this reaction to getting back out on the NFL road for the playoffs after a season mostly in the NBC studios: Road, I've missed you.
We don't miss hearing about how annoying the road is though, Peter. Think about your readers who have to hear about how every little luxury isn't perfectly laid out at every single hotel you stayed in during a road trip. Think about us before you go back on the road and get hysterically upset at the idea of there being no coffee at exactly 6:00am every morning.
First Taurus rental in years. Nice space-age control panel with SiriusXM Radio ...
But Peter, the big question is whether you took the time to put gas back in the car before you turned the rental car back in? Or did this rental car company screw you out of money by overcharging you for gas that you were too lazy to pump on your own?
"We should be arriving in 15 minutes,'' the pilot said on approach to the Atlanta airport. "Temperature in Atlanta is 63 degrees." ... In the span of one evening and a morning in the air, I've gone from five layers in Denver to my Winnipeg Jets polo walking into the Georgia Dome. Stupidly, of course. Put the darn thing on Sunday morning forgetting that the Atlanta Thrashers turned into the Winnipeg Jets, and a couple of media folks gave a look like, "You couldn't have worn something a little less offensive here today?''
Ah, it's just the South who cares, right Peter? Everyone in the South is too busy being racist, beating their wife, trying to seduce their sister, and owning 10 guns to worry about what some Yankee-boy is wearing at a football game. Nobody in the South even likes hockey, so Atlanta wouldn't be bitter about losing the Thrashers.
1. I think this is what I liked about the conference semifinal weekend:
a. Saturday. Wow. Incredible theater in Denver, and Kaepernick runs wild in San Francisco. That was about six straight hours of captivating football.
It was six hours of captivating football since the Broncos-Ravens game went into overtime. This is not including some of the second half of the Packers-49ers game. It was fun to watch Kaepernick do his thing, but the outcome of the game wasn't really in doubt, so I wouldn't say the game was captivating.
f. Joe Flacco's complete and utter disregard for caring about his contract -- at least publicly. Refreshing.
I don't completely get this comment. Flacco has been having his agent speak for him most of the time in regard to his contract. That's his job. His agent spoke up again on Monday about Flacco being elite. Flacco does care about his contract, which is why his agent is politicking for him to be considered an elite top-five quarterback.
l. Tony Gonzalez getting the monkey -- "no, it's a gorilla'' -- off his back, finally winning a playoff game in his 16th starry season.
What gorilla on Gonzalez's back? He has said to Peter King directly, he doesn't think winning a playoff game changes his legacy nor does it affect him negatively in any way if he never won a playoff game. I don't know how much clearer Gonzalez could have been in talking with Peter King about this. Yet, Peter still thinks Gonzalez got a gorilla off his back.
2. I think this is what I didn't like about conference semifinal weekend:
b. Houston releasing Trindon Holliday in Week 6. All he's been since is the most productive return man in football, with four touchdowns.
That didn't really happen this past weekend. I will allow it, but this seems more like something Peter wouldn't like about Week 6 of the NFL season. Wait, that's right. Peter didn't say anything at all in Week 6 about the Texans releasing Trindon Holliday.
f. Denver turning more arch-conservative than Bill O'Reilly Saturday.
For the 100th time, this is John Fox's M.O. Since Peter has covered the NFL for Fox's entire 11 year head coaching career, he has to have noticed Fox's conservativeness prior to Saturday.
i. Matt Schaub's inconsistency. Not time to throw him out -- particularly after signing him to a new contract in September -- but time to worry about his play.
Schaub is going to be 32 years old at the start of next season. He probably isn't changing or getting any better. He is what he is. If the Texans are worried about his play, I have a feeling his play won't improve as he gets closer to his mid-30's. The best option might be to put more talent around him on offense.
3. I think I liked what Cris Collinsworth said the other night on Showtime's Inside the NFL. Clearly uncomfortable with what he saw in Washington keeping a hobbled Robert Griffin III in the Wild Card playoff game against Seattle eight days ago, Collinsworth proposed this for every NFL sideline: "I think there should be two doctors. I think there should be a team doctor and there should be a players' doctor that is voted on every team.
I like people who have ideas. This isn't a terrible idea, but Robert Griffin insisted on being in that game and I am sure his Redskins teammates weren't going to stop him from being in the game if Griffin insisted he could play. So the player doctor would probably have allowed Griffin to go back into the game because that's most likely what Griffin and the Redskins team wanted. Like I said, it's not a terrible idea, but I don't know if the players have a doctor of their own then it would have prevented Griffin from going back on the field.
8. I think it would be hard for me to go to the office today, or anytime soon, if I were Mike Zimmer.
There has to be a reason Zimmer hasn't gotten a head coaching job or gotten to interview for many open positions. I don't know what it is, but there has to be a reason. It seems Zimmer is one of the media's favorite head coaching candidates and they are going to push for him until he is hired.
h. Coffeenerdness: Thanks, Caffe Fiore, in my daughter's Seattle neighborhood, for the great latte Thursday morning. Excellent espresso. Jolting.
Caffe Fiore, a company that isn't able to speak or hear the praise Peter King is sending, says "thank you."
j. Re the Baseball Hall of Fame: I'm just a fan of the game, so I can't tell you my vote would be qualified for anything but an argument at a bar. But I'd probably have voted for Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio, at least. It does bug me when guys who've drawn suspicion for using PEDs but never had anything proven-- like Piazza -- get nixed despite having a good Hall of Fame resume. What country are we in anyway? And I've just always loved the speed, the consistency, the approach to the game that Biggio brought for so many years.
k. But ... and this is a big "but" ... the voters, at least most of them, know things I don't about the players. It's their province, not mine.
These voters don't necessarily know anything about these players. Guys like Murray Chass are just guessing like the rest of us. The only that Murray Chass knows is that he has a high-horse and a Hall of Fame vote, so he'll be damned if he isn't going to vote based on his own preconceived notions.
The Adieu Haiku
Peyton and playoffs.
Nine and eleven. That hurts.
But numbers don't lie.
I don't know why Peter started doing haikus. I just don't know why. Maybe he was desperately looking for a signature way of ending MMQB and thought a Japanese poem was the best way to go about ending it. I think the best way to end it is to just not do a haiku. Any other way would be acceptable.
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