What do you know? I read MMQB again, so here I am writing. Funny how that works. Peter was up to Peter King-esque types of things the last time I covered MMQB. You can probably guess what those sorts of things were. He lost his phone after putting it down in a crowded airport bathroom, wrote a haiku, and congratulated a horse on his accomplishments. This week Peter reveals Mr. Ed's real name was not Mr. Ed. And yeah, there is still an awful haiku.
So the news of the NFL week starts in Charlotte, where owners begin gathering tonight for the annual quickie spring meeting
For God's sake, use the correct gender-assigned bathroom. We don't need no trouble these days.
(24 hours for these impatient billionaires), and by sundown Tuesday we’ll have three new Super Bowl cities.
The owners are building three new cities to host the Super Bowl? Who the hell says "Rome wasn't built in a day," because the NFL owners are building three cities in one day.
Super Bowl 54, February 2020: South Florida over Los Angeles and Tampa Bay. The
truth is the NFL would love to give the Super Bowl capping the league’s
first century to the city where the first Super Bowl was played, Los
Angeles. It could happen. But the Rams would really prefer to not be
preparing for a Super Bowl in the first season the new stadium in
Inglewood is operational.
This is Peter's prediction of who gets the Super Bowl. The Rams agreed to do "Hard Knocks" and kept who the #1 overall pick was under wraps to keep the drama going, so of course it makes sense for them to be able to dictate WHEN they host the Super Bowl over the other cities that just want to host the Super Bowl at any point it is convenient for the NFL to allow that city to do so.
Rules the owners will consider in Charlotte
Video study on sidelines during games. Currently, teams
can look at still images on their Microsoft Surfaces on sidelines
during games, or on images faxed from the press box the old-fashioned
way. Last year, during a few preseason games and the Pro Bowls, coaches
and quarterbacks could watch video on the Surfaces, and the players and
coaches loved it.
Sam Bradford LOVED being able to watch "Dexter" on the sidelines while the Eagles defense was on the field. He just wished the defense could have done more to stay on the field longer so he wouldn't have gotten constantly interrupted and ended up having to go back on the field. But hey, he's a competitor, so he cherished the chance to be paid. Plus, play quarterback. That was important too.
One hour has been set aside at the meetings so the league can discuss
the next wave of research and funding for player health and safety …
One whole hour! These owners have employees who are suffering from early dementia and dying from playing football, but they are kind enough to dedicate an hour to seeing if any of this stuff can be further prevented. I imagine this hour is really like the last session prior to lunch at most conferences. The presenter flies through the slides and gets the attendees out to lunch early, so most of the time dedicated to discussing player health is spent eating cubes of cheese and bitching about there being too much sugar in the tea.
Now this is downright strange. The NFL is investigating the by-the-book
Ravens for violating one of the simplest and clearest rules in the
collective bargaining agreement: practicing in pads during their rookie
minicamp.
It's so strange the public perception of an NFL team doesn't quite match reality 100% of the time. HOW COULD THIS BE?
I would be surprised if the Ravens get docked one of their precious
mid-round draft picks; the team has had the most compensatory picks in
the league since the system was instituted in 1994. Usually the
punishment for such violations is a diminution of spring practice time
and a fine for the offending parties—either the team or the coach or
both.
Now if the NFL had heard the Ravens were using slightly deflated footballs AND practicing with pads on? That's a heavy fine and loss of a first round draft pick. Or possibly Joe Flacco would be executed in the town square. It's totally up to the Ravens. The NFL doesn't want to appear heavy-handed.
The Washington Post last week published results of a poll of 504 of
the country’s 5.4 million Native Americans—in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia—that found:
Ninety percent of those polled said the nickname of Washington’s NFL
franchise does not bother them. Only 9 percent said the nickname
bothered them, with 1 percent undecided or with no opinion.
Seventy-three percent said the word Redskin is not disrespectful.
Okay … but what of the 21 percent, the 106 (approximately) of the 504
Native Americans polled who do find the name disrespectful?
These 21% of people are in what's known as "the minority," which means "not the majority" and we live in a country where, in general, "majority rules." You can always find something that a few people consider disrespectful, which doesn't mean their feelings should be ignored, but it also doesn't mean this minority should be catered to. If the Redskins changed their name, what about the 79% who don't find the name disrespectful. They no longer count?
I personally don't give a crap if the Redskins change their name or not. I'm not Native American and have no real feelings one way or another. I try not to tell others how they should/should not feel. I'm offended by things people say or do, but it doesn't mean my minority opinion should be the majority or catered to. More importantly, and I think this is important, many of the same people writing about the Redskins team name change are more prone to favoring the name change given their political affiliation.
The media is more liberal, so it makes sense that a more liberal point of view (changing the Redskins name) would be over-represented when talking about the potential name change. But I can't emphasize enough how little of an opinion I have about this issue. If Native Americans really find it offensive, change it. If Native Americans don't care and the Washington Redskins organization doesn't want to change it, leave it as it is.
The NFL’s Incredible Shrinking Stat: touchdown numbers for running backs.
Adrian Peterson has 97, and there’s little doubt he’ll become the
10th back in history to rush for at least 100 touchdowns; in fact, this
year, he could catch Jim Brown, number five on the list with 105.
But after that, there’s a long fall to the number two active
touchdown runner: The Colts’ Frank Gore, 33 years old, enters the season
with 70 career rushing touchdowns. Number three on the active list is
DeAngelo Williams, with 57.
Hmmmm...I am proposing there is a causation issue here.
The decline in emphasis on the running game is making the touchdown run
passé. Find an offensive category in NFL history with only two of the
top 50 players of all-time being active today.
I won't argue the emphasis on the running game has declined, but couldn't this statistic be the result of teams going away from a one running back system, more quarterbacks being considered "running" quarterbacks and the evolution of players who are considered goal line backs?
Here is an example and it may be a bad one. You can judge. Jonathan Stewart has 36 career rushing touchdowns. Cam Newton has 43 career rushing touchdowns. Mike Tolbert has 33 career rushing touchdowns. Maybe this is a special case, but does Stewart's 36 career touchdowns mean the touchdown run is becoming passe or when it gets to "1st/2nd/3rd-and-goal" short situations there are a variety of players in the Carolina offense that could get the carry? There isn't just one running back that gets the ball on the goal line. This is true for several NFL teams that don't have Adrian Peterson or another stud running back.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis has 42 career rushing touchdowns. That's more than Brian Westbrook, Christian Okoye,and Gale Sayers. He has often been used as the goal line back for the Patriots/Bengals. Brandon Jacobs is 47th all-time on the rushing touchdown list with 60 rushing touchdowns. Mike Alstott is 50th with 58 career rushing touchdowns, while Warrick Dunn is 73rd with 49 career rushing touchdowns. It's possible use of the running game is declining, but rushing touchdowns are often shared by multiple running backs. So I don't think a decline in the emphasis on the running game can be the only cause here.
Jon Runyan, appointed the NFL’s vice president of policy and rules
administration (head of on-field discipline) last week, has had an
interesting life. Fourth-round pick of the Houston Oilers, 1996. Many
battles royale with Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan. Voted
the No. 2 dirtiest player in the NFL by Sports Illustrated, 2006. Voted
to two terms in U.S. Congress out of south Jersey starting in 2011.
My favorite factoid about him: During one phase of his career, Runyan
would stop at a Starbucks drive-through on the way to games and order
nine shots of espresso in a venti cup. And, of course, he’d sip it in
the hours before a game. I bet he was a rip-snorter in first halfs.
Yes, Runyan probably did fart really loud all through the first half.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Two notes about air travel:
• Been stuck in a couple of long TSA lines (58 minutes at LaGuardia
in April, but nothing approaching two hours) at American airports this
spring, and I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the complaints about the
inconvenience. That’s modern travel today. We live in a dangerous world,
and you’re just going to have to accept getting to the airport two
hours before your flight as a rule now. The alternative to significant
inconvenience, I’m afraid, is much worse.
Given the fact Peter has a weekly section of MMQB dedicated to complaining about travel inconveniences, his condescension towards those who complain about waiting in line to get through security at an airport probably says more about him than any comment I could make would. It's nice how Peter understands know that even small inconveniences at the airport are worth the trade-off of ensuring each person flying through that airport stays safe. I wonder how long this message sticks with Peter?
• I was on an American Airlines flight from Kansas City to O’Hare the
other day. A man walked down the aisle and into the row of his seat, and
he bumped his head hard on the area right below the overhead bin,
causing the underside of the bin to fly open. The guy was okay, looked
at the yawning under-bin with wires hanging out, and figured he should
probably just leave it alone. The flight attendant came by and said
she’d alert maintenance. I’m thinking, Why don’t they just try to close
the hatch themselves, before calling maintenance? But, you know,
everything in the world can’t be left up to me. So we waited, and all
the passengers boarded, and it was maybe 15 minutes before a maintenance
fellow showed up. He took one look at it, carefully moved the under-bin
piece back into place, made sure none of the wires would be pinched,
and then closed it with a click. Took him seven seconds, max. But then,
of course, “the proper paperwork” had to be filled out and signed off.
Yes, the paperwork. The captain came on and said we’d be underway as
soon as “the paperwork” was complete. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
Fourteen minutes. “We’re just getting the paperwork completed, and we’ll
be underway.” All in all, it was a 31-minute delay, to snap a bin shut
and dutifully record it in some logbook.
One paragraph. It took one paragraph for Peter to go from "A little inconvenience is worth knowing you are a safe" to "I have no patience for any type of the delay that prevents me from getting to where I want to go in the fastest manner possible." I know Peter is railing against the paperwork involved, but just like TSA agents being present at security, this is about addressing and documenting a potential threat to the plane's security. It took one paragraph for Peter to turn away from his thought that the alternative to a significant inconvenience is much worse than that inconvenience.
It does sound ridiculous to have such a delay for a small issue. Peter misses the key issue here. The issue isn't whether the flight attendant can close the bin or not. Of course she could. Does Peter know where these wires attached to? Perhaps these were wires for the air that passengers can turn on during a flight, were part of the plane's lighting system or even were just wires that are required for some of the emergency buttons to light up. That's the point, that Peter has no clue what these wires do. One minute he's preaching patience through security, the next he just assumes wires hanging down from the under-bin can just be fixed by a flight attendant. It's just another day in the life of Peter King. He doesn't need to follow his own rules.
Ten Things I Think I Think
2. I think the four strangest things about the Bovada.com win-total over-unders for the 2016 season are:
c. Only five teams with a double-digit projection: Pats, Pack, Panthers, Steelers, Seahawks, all at 10.5.
Gregg Easterbrook would be PISSED if he saw these projections. I'm sure he would write, "How can a team win 0.5 of a game?" and then continue his ridiculous criticisms of these over-unders for the next two years until he mysteriously stops mentioning them like he never even brought it up after a reader points out why these over-unders do in fact make sense.
d. Bovada likes Jameis and the Bucs, and the re-made Jags: 7.5 wins
each … which is more than the over/under for the Eagles, Saints,
Dolphins and Lions (7 apiece).
(Gregg Easterbrook) "HOW CAN A TEAM WIN 7.5 GAMES? I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW AVERAGES/OVER-UNDERS WORK BUT MY LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON THIS SUBJECT DEFINITELY IS A REFLECTION ON HOW STUPID OVER-UNDERS ARE AND IS NOT A REFLECTION ON ME!"
5. I think I did note that Brock Osweiler told our Jenny Vrentas he
holds “no grudge” with the Denver Broncos, and while I’m not accusing
him of not telling the truth, I retain the same feeling I’ve had since
he left the Super Bowl champs for a lesser team: Something happened in
Denver that Osweiler didn’t like and that led him to leave—the
late-season benching perhaps. But something.
I would think the Brinks truck of money that the Texans backed up to Osweiler's door would make him feel better, but I guess not. Perhaps Osweiler is upset he spent four seasons on the bench, played fairly well when he got a chance, and then got benched for a noodle-armed quarterback who managed to throw for 539 yards over three full playoff games, while riding his defense to a Super Bowl victory and leading his offense to the worst performance by a winning team ever? Nope, I'm really not bitter, these are just the facts. I guess the fact the Broncos were historically bad offensively in the Super Bowl, then the team waited around for the well-past-his-prime quarterback who led the team to that historically bad performance to make a decision about retirement rather than give a "fair" contract offer to his backup who had waited four years for the opportunity and feels like he had proven he could do the job had something to do with the decision by Osweiler.
Maybe. That could be it.
9. I think this will show my age. But no matter how quiet the Giants are
about what Janoris Jenkins said to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post
last week, about having five children with four women, none of whom is
his wife, they cannot be happy with it. Said Jenkins: “When they were
going with me, they understand, ‘OK, he’s a football player. He’s gonna
have multiple women.’ That just comes with dating a football player.”
The Giants knew about Jenkins' children long before they signed him to a free agent contract this offseason. Isn't it weird how the Rams drafted Jenkins and Peter didn't really have much to say about the Rams drafting him when he has five children with four women? So the Rams, a team which Peter has significant ties, draft Jenkins and Peter goes out of his way to show the support system the Rams have in place for Jenkins to meet his parental obligations. The Giants sign Jenkins as a free agent and now all of a sudden Peter "shows his age" and thinks the Giants can't be happy about all these children he has. The Rams draft Jenkins, Peter shows how they have the support system for him, the Giants sign Jenkins and now all these kids are an issue. Weird how that works isn't it?
So, monogamy is either highly unusual or just wrong for a football
player?
Come on Peter. Jenkins' comments are dumb, but we all know how much ass professional athletes get. They travel all the time, they have money...it's not the high point of morality, but after covering sports for this long you have to ask this question?
The establishment Giants owners, the Maras and Tisches, have to
be gagging at the thought that for their football-playing employees,
it’s expected that traditional families are passe.
I'm sure Steve Tisch, a man who has been married then divorced twice and has children with both of his ex-wives, is really up in arms about how traditional families are now passe. And who can forget this little fucking nugget from THIS VERY MMQB?:
u. To Laura King and Kim Zylker King: Happy First Anniversary! I hope the next 74 years together are as great as the first was.
MY GOD! PETER HAS A DAUGHTER WHO IS A LESBIAN? AND SHE IS MARRIED TO ANOTHER WOMAN?
Whatever will Peter's overlords at NBC think about him showing off how a traditional family is now passe? I'm sure whoever employs Peter's daughter is gagging at the thought of their employee giving the middle finger to the idea of a traditional family. Peter is just a clusterfuck of contradictions and lack of thought sometimes.
And what the hell is up with Peter using "passe" several times in this MMQB? Is this his word of the day or something?
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
c. Chris Sale is 9-0, and he’ll have two more starts before June 1.
Imagine being 11-0 through a third of the season. Dare we mention Denny
McLain?
You just did. Also, Peter will write "dare we mention Denny McLain" and then point out exactly why his own thought about mentioning Denny McLain in relation to Sale winning 30 games is probably not necessary.
d. Denny McLain’s the last pitcher to win 30 games in a year (31-6, in
1968), and he won his 11th game on June 16, 1968. So there’s that. Not
saying it’s anything but a remote possibility for Sale, because McLain
started every fourth day. Generally, Sale starts every fifth or sixth
day.
Also, the most games Sale has started in a season is 31. So he would have to essentially win every start while also getting a decision in every start he makes to win 30 games. It's hard enough to get a decision in every start, much less win every start. So yeah, 30 games isn't happening. Dare you mention Denny McLain though?
j. Mr. Ed died in 1970. I have a quiz for you: Do you know Mr. Ed’s real
name? I mean, it wasn’t “Mr. Ed.” Mr. Ed was Mr. Ed’s stage name.
Plus, and this is a very important point, it's a horse. So the horse didn't even know it had a stage name. Why would anyone assume "Mr. Ed" was the horse's name simply because it appeared on a show called "Mr. Ed"? I don't assume Hugh Laurie's name is "Gregory House" because he appears on a show called "House."
(Peter King) "Here is a nugget of trivia for you: The direwolf on 'Game of Thrones' is not named 'Ghost.' In fact, that direwolf's name is 'I'm a Special Effect.' I bet you didn't know that."
k. Real name:
“Bamboo Harvester.”
Though a horse named "Mr. Ed" did publicity shots after Bamboo Harvester's death in 1970. So Mr. Ed's real name actually was "Mr. Ed" for a period of time.
l. Not much of an NBA guy, as you all know.
And, as you all know, this means an observation about the NBA will immediately follow this comment. Peter can't not make an observation about the NBA without first distancing himself from the sport completely so his readers know just how stupid his following observation truly will be.
But has any team ever been set up for a draft the way the Celtics are?
They pick 3, 16, 23, 31, 35, 45, 51, 58. There are 60 picks in the
draft.
The odds of the Celtics ever using all of those picks is very, very, very low. Not to mention, the best two players in the draft also happen to be positions of need for the Celtics, so they are stuck with a perceived fall-off in talent after the first two picks, as well as a group of guards to choose from that doesn't appear to be an immediate need for them. Plus, the Celtics don't have depth issues. They have a very deep team, but they need a player they can build the team around and don't necessarily need more players.
n. The Knicks once owned the seventh, ninth and 37th overall picks in the draft. Traded them all away.
Eh, not really. The Knicks never owned these specific picks in the 2016 draft. They owned two first round picks and a second round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, but it's not like they traded away the 7th, 9th, and 37th pick in the draft knowing those were the picks they had. The Knicks traded the 7th pick in 2011 in the Carmelo Anthony trade by allowing the Nuggets the option to switch 2016 first round picks. The Knicks traded the 9th pick in 2013 to the Raptors and the 37th pick has been through three teams and now I have a headache. My point is the Knicks didn't think they would be picking so high (low?) in the draft, so they didn't exactly trade these picks knowing where they would be picking in the 2016 NBA Draft. Still, it's awful team planning. No doubt.
The Adieu Haiku
Ed, Wilbur: both dead.
Werder, don’t you dare change that
Twitter avatar
King, please for all that is wonderful and great in this life, in the name of the traditional family that you believe others want so badly even though they don't live the life of a traditional family and neither do you, stop writing haikus.
Dare to change that haiku.
Showing posts with label MMQB=OMFG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MMQB=OMFG. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Thursday, October 29, 2015
7 comments MMQB Review: MMQB Brought To You By Yahoo and the NFL Edition
Peter King still doesn't know what a factoid is and thinks that Johnny Manziel (who he doesn't know personally at all he admits) needs to do better in order to keep his NFL career alive. This week Peter talks about winning streaks, how Internet football is all the rage around the world, discusses the Dolphins turnaround under the bro Dan Campbell, and he writes "What a country" because there is hockey in Brooklyn. Peter King gets to write a weekly column AND hockey is in non-traditional cities. WHAT A COUNTRY THIS IS! Except for the gun violence, of course. The gun violence and the people who insist on acting in a way while in public that Peter disproves of. Those people who talk on the phone while running in the park can fall into a lake, but otherwise, what a country!
Sunday was a historic day in the NFL, a little bit on the field, and a big bit off. On: Carolina’s 27-16 win over the Eagles means the NFL has five 6-0 teams simultaneously for the first time in league history—Carolina, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay and New England.
One team sticks out pretty badly on the list as not belonging. Probably the team that can't throw the football very well and has had a somewhat shaky time in the passing game with a thrice-rejected wide receiver as their #1 receiver.
And though Buffalo-Jacksonville in London wasn’t a marquee game, it accomplished just what the NFL and Yahoo, the provider, had hoped. Yahoo announced that it had 15.6 million unique viewers and 33.6 million total live streams of the game; roughly 33% of that viewership came from outside the U.S.
This goes to show that if the NFL live streams one game between two non-playoff teams then people will watch the game possibly. Also, it shows that Peter King is going to sound like he is doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. You know I have been somewhat suspicious about the NFL trying so damn hard to have success overseas, but Peter King is very, very fucking impressed with this first live stream result. This could open up the NFL to being able to live stream games and then not have games on television anymore. Which means NFL fans in the United States, you know, the people who buy the vast majority of the apparel, season tickets and actually support these teams, can all huddle around a computer or tablet (maybe even Roku!) at a party to watch a game stream. Sounds like fun.
And there’s little doubt that, though the league treats its 256 regular-season games like home-TV gold, it’s likely to parcel out more than one game to an internet company in 2016.
Probably not a bad idea. I bet the NFL's dream is to have teams in several different countries and never actually show the games on television. They can just live stream them all and everything will be great because people in other countries TOTALLY don't know that the NFL is a clusterfuck when it comes to concussions and doling out punishment to players who step outside the law or choose to deflate a football by a few PSI. Foreigners are so blind to all the NFL's faults. That's the ideal market for the NFL.
Let’s begin with the stories of the week, from south Florida, New England, Charlotte, London, Indianapolis, New Jersey and Seattle, with stuff about donuts, the ticking time bomb that is Greg Hardy, and the deep scar that won’t be leaving Lovie Smith anytime soon.
Man, having Rex Grossman as his quarterback in Chicago has really left an impression on Lovie Smith. I bet he has nightmares about Grossman randomly throwing the ball deep in the hopes of a completion.
Greg Hardy. I think the sooner we realize that Hardy is a member of the Dallas Cowboys only and absolutely only because he is a very good defensive end with rare pass-rush skills, the better off we’ll be.
Hey Peter, I think "we" already knew that Hardy is on the Cowboys roster because he's good at football and don't need to be reminded of this. If Hardy had a down year before his legal issues, like Ray Rice had, then maybe he wouldn't be defended and enabled like the Cowboys are doing for him. It's never been unclear as to why Hardy is with the Cowboys. If he couldn't play, he wouldn't be on the Cowboys roster.
The video put on air by Mike Florio at NBC on Sunday night, showing Hardy in a sideline conflagration with Dallas special-teams coach Rich Bisaccia—slapping the clipboard in the coach’s hand threateningly, causing the coach to shove Hardy and Hardy to get in his face—showed a player bordering on out of control.
Yeah, but he is a team leader according to Jerry Jones. This is just an example of Hardy being a leader and telling the special teams coach that as a leader of the Cowboys team he isn't going to give a flying fuck what he thinks and he feels the need to be disrespectful in order to prove just how much of a team leader he is.
Hardy is a troubled guy and enabling his behavior, as has been done during parts of his NFL career isn't going to help this situation stay in control.
I don't expect the Cowboys to cut Hardy. He plays too well. But it would be nice if, instead of saying things like what a great and fiery competitor he is, someone with the Cowboys would say: “If Hardy continues to act volcanic, he’s going to have to find somewhere else to play. If anyone will have him.”
Okay, well that's stupid Peter. The Cowboys are never going to publicly say that no one else will want Hardy nor will they say publicly he's on the edge of not being a Cowboy anymore. Should they? Possibly, but I don't think any NFL teams would call out a player on the team in this fashion. If a Cowboys player did it, and I'm sure at least one thinks it, then he knows his comments would be chum in the water for a circus surrounding the team. These types of comments just aren't happening.
Midway through the fourth quarter in a rout of Houston, Tannehill threw a 10-yard out pass to backup tight end Dion Sims. It was high, but Sims raised one hand and the ball bounced off it. Had he put both hands up, who knows? But it was a catchable ball, for sure. So Tannehill finished 18 of 19 for 282 yards with four touchdowns (all in the first 16 minutes) and no interceptions.
Player on the rise. Tannehill should play for the Rams so they could have a player on the rise for a team on the rise. In all non-snark, Tannehill has plenty of good players around him and it's about time the Dolphins let him play to the strengths of those players around Tannehill. Maybe now Tannehill won't feel the need to berate practice squad players, though I'm sure that report was totally untrue.
Afterward I said to Tannehill it was a shame about that 19th throw. “What’s that?” he said. You know, I said, the fact that it ruined his perfect day. He acted as if it wasn’t a big deal, because of the way the day was game-planned.
Peter loves to do this shit. He loves to be cutesy by bringing up the one thing that went wrong on an otherwise flawless day when interviewing a player, as if no one but Peter is aware that one thing went wrong. It's like Peter wants the player to come off as a team player and be like, "My God, you are so smart to notice this one thing I didn't notice about my or the team's performance today." Why the fuck would Tannehill think this missed pass was a big deal when the Dolphins played so well otherwise?
Obviously, the coaching change in Miami is agreeing with Tannehill. He’s an 83.3 percent passer in the two games since Dan Campbell took over. “He wants us to play like we played as kids, with a love of the game,” Tannehill said.
Peter King has a massive fucking erection right now. Ryan Tannehill says Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play the game like kids, precocious little kids who haven't a hair on their body from puberty and don't know the evils of life and how disappointing it is to grow up and be a man. Playing like kids for the love of the game as Peter stands to side and wonders why can't HE be a little kid. Then he could play the game like a little kid like Tannehill does. They could both be little kids, hugging after a touchdown, giving half-fives and grabbing some lemonade and hoping mom will let Ryan sleep over on a school night. Just this once. Brett Favre played the game like a child and that's how Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play, just like precocious little kids. Nothing is better in Peter's mind than watching kids play sports, even if he has to stay by law on the other side of the fence and at least 250 yards away from the action.
Dan Campbell. Stop saying, “Who cares? He’s beaten Tennessee and Houston, and they stink.”
I mean, I'm not saying that, but this is still a relevant point. Even if Joe Philbin was a disaster as a coach, it doesn't mean the Dolphins aren't playing above their head right now. Maybe not, but it's possible the Dolphins aren't as good as they have shown themselves to be over the last two games and Joe Philbin was terrible at his job. There is an opinion in between these two that could be factual.
Part of my job at NBC on Sundays is to pay particularly close attention to the 1 p.m. ET games before production work for the Football Night show begins in earnest. And the difference in the Dolphins has been startling. One sack in the first four games. Ten sacks in the two games since Campbell took over. Clearly the players are playing with more drive, more passion. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it’s going to show in your work, negatively. And it’s clear these players like playing for the new boss.
Well, the Dolphins also claimed to like playing for Joe Philbin at one point. Remember Cameron Wake with his "Philbin comes and talks to us at night and seems to really care for us now" comments? The Dolphins are now winning, which means they like playing for their coach.
Tom Brady. The Patriots are 6-0. Brady has thrown one interception, in 251 passes. For those inclined to hate him, or treat him the way so many baseball fans treat Alex Rodriguez, for instance, nothing he does will change your mind about him.
I don't know if I understand the A-Rod comparison here, but that may just be me. Even some Yankees fans don't like A-Rod, while Patriots fans are fiercely protective of Brady. I guess it's an easy comparison because they are both considered cheaters.
Rex Ryan. The Bills had the fourth-best defense, statistically, in football last year, and Ryan said in the spring, “I know we’ll be better this year.” They’re 11th this morning. Players are grousing about roles. The quarterback who played Sunday, EJ Manuel, shows occasional flashes of good deep-ball throwing, but he cannot be saved.
Another flashback moment...remember last year when Peter suggested that E.J. Manuel should just say "fuck it" and throw the ball deep down the field? I'm not sure what that memory has much to do with anything right now, but Peter's suggestion that Manuel can't be saved and he's good at throwing a deep ball every once in a while just made me remember it.
Kawann Short. Short is the one demanding more attention these days, and he’s proving that Gettleman was smart to eschew a receiver or cornerback early in that ’13 draft. When you can get quick big guys on the defensive front, Gettleman believes you never pass on them—and the pick of Short is proving him right.
Actually, when a team can get quick big guys on the defensive front, I think nearly every GM thinks you can't pass on these types of players. It's not just Gettleman who is smart enough to think, "Man, that big guy sure is fat, fast and dominant. Perhaps I should try to acquire him through the draft."
The great live-streaming experiment.
“First,” said Brian Rolapp, “we wouldn’t call it an experiment. We waited until now because we wanted to make sure the internet could handle it;
Of course. I mean, so many people have dial-up phones and Internet these days that the NFL and Yahoo had to make sure these people who wanted to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville game had enough free hours of AOL to watch the entire game.
My experiment with Bills-Jags on Yahoo,
Geez Peter, it's not an experiment!
I suppose, was not unlike others in the United States with things to do on Sunday morning. In my Manhattan East Side apartment, I tried two devices, a laptop and a smart phone, just before the game kicked off. Got into Yahoo.com immediately on both, and painlessly got the game up in time to see Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon give me a quick preview.
In Peter's "Manhattan East Side apartment" as opposed to simply, "my apartment," because it's important to know the exact location of Peter's apartment in order for this story about Internet to be told. Without Peter mentioning he lives on the East Side, I would have been totally confused.
Rolapp and some NFL employees watched from a conference room on Park Avenue. “We had it up on laptops, tablets, Surfaces, iPhones, Roku, Xbox, everything we could think of,” he said, “and the stream held up well on all of them.”
I'm amazed to hear the NFL didn't have problems with the live stream video of the NFL football game that is the beginning of a new era in how the NFL presents their product to consumers. Here I thought the NFL would report the live stream didn't work at all and they are giving up trying to live stream games and any revenue they may go along with it.
So the NFL wanted to see three things when it decided to take one of its three Sunday morning games from London and show it free on the internet only,
1. Will it lead to the league making more money?
2. Is there a way to present this product while also taking away a home game from one of the current NFL teams while also increasing how much money the NFL makes?
3. Will it lead to additional revenue for the NFL?
Two: The league wanted to see if there was an appetite for the game in some of the places where the NFL is underserved. Russia and China, for instance, and a Sunday morning game in Eastern Time would be a Sunday evening prime-time game in large swaths of Asia.
You know what? Fuck it, let's just put an NFL team in Taiwan. Why not? This live stream did well in that country, so obviously that means an entire NFL team can be supported in the country. Actually, here is a better idea. What if each NFL team has to play one international home game every year? Each team will play seven home regular season games per year and eight road games with an international game in there as a home game. Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged for 10 home games.
Three: Would it all go smoothly enough so that the project might expand and more games would be exclusively streamed to the net beginning next year?
And if it goes smoothly once, why not expand the project to see if the Internet can handle more games exclusively streamed to the net? What if the NFL just stopped having football games in actual stadiums, still charged money to watch the games on the Internet, and simply played games in an empty venue where every person who would normally watch the game in the stadium has to pay to watch it on a computer? Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged extra for the 10 games they would go to if they actually were able to attend any of these games.
The vast majority during the regular season and post-season are spoken for through 2020 and 2021. But there are three Sunday games (currently the early-window London games, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET) available, and there will be the Thursday night package in 2016; CBS is on a one-year deal for Thursdays in 2015, simulcasting with NFL Network and then ceding to NFL Network alone beginning in Week 9. That 16-game package is now up for negotiation for 2016 and beyond.
Money! Money! Money!
I think it’s likely there could be a Sunday game plus at least one Thursday game headed for the internet in 2016.
It's a great idea actually. Usually the Thursday night games are shit, so why not share that shit with the rest of the world that doesn't have CBS or NFL Network?
The MMQB asked fans around the world who watched the game on Sunday to send us their views of the streaming experience. Their responses were what you’d think if you watched: positive.
It's impossible for Peter to ignore this live streaming non-experiment of course, but it does sometimes feel like he's doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. Nary a negative word was spoken about the live stream. Apparently no person in the world had an issue viewing the live stream.
Tyrone Carriaga
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Gametime: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
“I watched at home using Apple TV. I watched because I do not see a live game as part of the TV package here. The start time was convenient as well. It looked like standard definition most of the game.
Standard definition? Where can I sign up for watching sports in standard definition? I have a television that I paid $2000 for which shows the best picture possible, but if I can get sports in standard definition instead of high definition then I'd like to sign up for this immediately!
The rest of the comments are basically an advertisement for Yahoo and the NFL, including:
“I watched at home, on my phone and then my laptop. I try to watch as many games as I can. Big NFL fan. Playing at Wembley adds a little something extra. It's great to see a soccer temple being used for football. The quality was excellent. I expected a less-fluent transmission, but it turned out to be flawless.
Overall it was good. Quality on par with NFL Game Pass [the NFL’s subscription streaming service for fans outside the U.S. and Mexico]. No hassle, just click the link and it worked.”
I'll take any bit of NFL football any way I can.
I feel like the famous picture of Peter beside Roger Goodell eating lunch should be somewhere in this MMQB. It is not though, much to my dismay.
Watching NFL games on TV in Brazil is a very choppy experience: Between snaps (commercial breaks, timeouts, on-field reporting etc.), a lot of footage you see in the U.S. doesn't get televised here, so the viewing experience is not as good. The online stream was a smooth and consistent viewing experience. It was great. Much better than expected. Yahoo outdid themselves on the streaming quality.”
What if the NFL televised games on the Internet AND on a regular television? Or would that not work because it would mix revenue streams too much? I'm glad the game was a success, but it was one game, so I'm not jumping out of my seat with excitement quite yet. But Peter wants everyone who reads MMQB to know this non-experiment was a success. There was no hassle and it was in standard definition. All dreams have come true.
More progress needs to be made. The co-chair of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, Seattle-based doctor Richard Ellenbogen, was in London for the conference. He is also one of the NFL’s unaffiliated head-trauma experts on the sidelines, and has the power to take a player off the field if he sees the player wobbly or otherwise showing symptoms of a concussion.
He has "the power" to do this. I'm a little confused as to how this gentleman is the co-chair of an NFL committee, but also unaffiliated with the NFL. Perhaps I'm just stupid. It just seems if he is the co-chair of an NFL committee then he is affiliated with the NFL in some way.
I asked Ellenbogen if he ever felt like he, and those in the think tank Saturday, held the future of football and perhaps other contact sports in their hands. It’s clear that football is under such fire that its existence could be threatened if the fathers of the game don’t do more for the health and safety of players.
Because, yes Peter, Ellenbogen is going to say the NFL's existence would be threatened if they don't do more for the health and safety of the players. He's the co-chair of an NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, but he will also pronounce the league DOA if he and the rest of his committee don't do more. I simply don't believe Ellenbogen would make it sound like the future of the NFL is in his hands, because that makes the situation sound dire. The NFL disapproves of this.
“No question it’s important,” Ellenbogen said. “But the unintended consequences of getting rid of contact sports would be an unmitigated disaster. Whatever we do, please do not have the conversation about banning these [contact] sports. The benefits of sports—for physical health, for the benefits of being on a team—far outweigh the risks. I can’t even imagine the consequences if enrollment started declining in sports like football and lacrosse.”
Ah yes, a doctor who sounds like he is carrying water for the NFL. The benefit of sports OVERALL far outweigh the risks, but the risks of individual sports could outweigh the benefits of those sports. It is not as if lacrosse, football or any other sports considered "dangerous" were no longer active sports that kids and adults would have no other way of being in good physical health or exercising in any fashion. Contact sports aren't the only sports which provide good physical benefits to those who participate in sports. There are plenty of other sports that adults and children could play which would provide an opportunity for good physical health. I'm not saying to ban football, but this doctor isn't doing too much to convince me he's not carrying water for the NFL by answering a question this way. Ellenbogen is making it sound like there are no other options for those who want to exercise, other than these contact sports.
“All losses hurt. Some leave a deep scar. This is one of those.”
—Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith. The Bucs blew a 24-0 lead at Washington and lost, 31-30.
This may not be a good thing for a head coach to say. The last thing a head coach usually wants is for his players to dwell on a difficult loss. Great way to set an example for a young quarterback and Lovie's team by saying a loss left a deep scar. Even if it's true, does Lovie really want his team focusing on the tough loss and not trying to move on to the next game? Kudos to him for being honest, I guess.
“If they trade me, I’d quit today.”
—Baltimore wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., perhaps nervous that one of the teams most inclined to trade in recent NFL history—the Ravens and their pragmatic GM, Ozzie Newsome—are on the verge of going 1-6 with the trading deadline eight days away. He made his remarks to the team’s website.
I don't believe Smith would retire if he were traded. Still, one can see why the Panthers inexplicably released Smith two seasons ago. It's not that he's a bad guy by any measure, but he can be difficult at times. This is one of those times. He'd rather continue to play on a losing team than move teams halfway through his last season in the NFL in an effort to get a Super Bowl ring.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, cornerback, New York Giants. There’s the Matt Cassel factor here—he threw interceptions on three straight series midway through the Giants’ 27-20 win over the Cowboys on Sunday in New Jersey—but credit Rodgers-Cromartie for being in the right place at the right time for two picks totaling 70 return yards and one touchdown.
The important thing to note here is that Peter believes Matt Cassel was terrible in his only start this season, yet later in MMQB Peter will make it seems like the Bills made a mistake by trading Cassel at the beginning of the season and keeping E.J. Manuel. I guess the terrible QB the Bills traded is better than the terrible QB on the Bills' roster.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
The Houston Texans. Just an awful performance, falling behind 41-0, being outgained at one point 275-0. Time to do the proverbial look-selves-in-the-mirror and the gut-check and, well, all the other clichés.
I can't imagine what could go wrong when the Texans collect every backup quarterback the Patriots didn't want. How can Bill O'Brien fail as a head coach? He is affiliated with the Patriots AND he seemed like such a decisive team leader when the cameras were rolling for "Hard Knocks." It's almost like cameras can lie.
EJ Manuel, quarterback, Buffalo.
He followed that up with interceptions on the next two series, including one right into the arms of Telvin Smith, who returned it for a touchdown. Great end zone view on the Yahoo stream, with Manuel staring the entire time at the spot he threw to, and Smith baiting and waiting. Easy pick.
Excellent view by that Yahoo stream. Enough about football, Peter wants to talk some more about Yahoo and how great the stream was of the Bills and Jaguars game. You could see, in standard definition, by how much Blake Bortles was overthrowing his receivers. What a country! No, because this was an international broadcast, what a world!
Buffalo’s worst nightmare—first when drafting Manuel in 2013, then when dealing Matt Cassel to Dallas for a 2017 fifth-round pick.
Is this their worst nightmare? Is Matt Cassel playing for the Bills really what would fix their season? Cassel didn't exactly blow the roof off the joint in his one start with the Cowboys behind a pretty good Cowboys offensive line. Is the crappy QB not on the roster really a better option than the crappy QB on the Bills' roster?
You may not recall this. It’s been almost 10 years. But when the Patriots decided to let Adam Vinatieri go in free agency, the team was criticized in some corners for not ponying up to re-sign the kicker, who’d been the epitome of clutch.
I remember it vividly. Shockingly, someone other than Peter King can recall events that occurred longer than a few years ago. It comes as a huge surprise to Peter this is true.
• In Vinatieri’s six years (regular-season and post-season) playing for Bill Belichick, he made 82.9 percent of his field goals.
• In Gostkowski’s 10 years playing for Belichick, he has made 87.7 percent of his field goals.
Yeah, but Vinatieri was the epitome of clutch, so that has to count for something, right?
In the last 10 games against each team in their division, the Patriots are:
• 8-2 against the Jets.
• 8-2 against the Dolphins.
• 8-2 against the Bills.
Again I will ask, is this a product of the Patriots being great or the division not being very good? The AFC South is crap and the Colts have been feeding from that division for quite a few years now, but when criticizing teams like the Seahawks who make the playoffs at 7-9 just remember there may be a 12-4 team that made the playoffs based on competing in a shitty division.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I traveled six miles Friday evening to Barclays Center—what a pleasant surprise, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Brasco, Don and Alissa Banks, there—to watch an Islanders hockey game. Hockey in Brooklyn. What a country.
Rich white people all got to the same hockey game in Brooklyn. Peter left his apartment on the East Side and went to this hockey game. What a country to see someone that Peter knows at a hockey game! What a world! What a planet! What a solar system!
The place wasn’t invented for hockey. I feel for the fans who have to travel from the Island to see the Islanders.
The venue sucked. What a country.
Bonus: The drinks and food are really good there. Brooklyn Lager on tap, with a slice of square Williamsburg Pizza, terrific crust and fairly light, complete with fresh basil.
The pizza had good crust and fresh basil? So basically it was...pizza?
I was unsure if this was terrible or not, but now that the Football Coach Jesus says it is, then I guess Greg Hardy's behavior was terrible. I bet Tony Dungy wants to mentor Greg Hardy. That is Dungy's thing. He wants to mentor. Perhaps someone should mentor Dungy on how to win more than one Super Bowl with Peyton Manning.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 7:
c. Fantastic throw, catch and lunge for the touchdown by the Jags’ Blake Bortles and Allen Robinson on the first touchdown of Sunday.
Ask Davon House, Blake Bortles can throw the ball just like Aaron Rodgers. Just minus the talent, throwing ability, feel for the pass rush and any other attribute that makes Rodgers so great.
i. Good CBS graphic in the first half at Foxboro: Pats 46-4 in their previous 50 home games, best 50-game home record in the league in at least the past 50 years.
BREAKING NEWS: The Patriots are a really good team.
m. The tip-of-the-fingertips catch by Gary Barnidge, Cleveland’s emerging stalwart tight end. (You just might read about him very soon at The MMQB.)
Don't tease us about this, Peter. I bet Barnidge is a free agent after this season and Peter wants to describe how Marvin Demoff (I have no idea if that is Barnidge's agent or not) can structure a compensation package exactly to where the Browns won't be able to compete with it.
p. Incredible effort by Detroit’s Ziggy Ansah, sprinting 72 yards to catch Adrian Peterson and knock him out of bounds at the 3-yard line. It saved Detroit four points. Instead of Peterson scoring a touchdown, the Vikes settled for a field goal.
This note about great hustle from Ansah will not appear in TMQ, because Ansah is a first round glory boy pick. If it does show up, I'm sure Peter would focus on how Peterson, a highly-drafted glory boy who brags about how great he is, was caught from behind.
w. The transcendent year Josh Norman is having for Carolina. Did you see the pass-breakup he had near the end of the first half, which looked absolutely like the touchdown the Eagles desperately needed? Norman sold out, flicked it away, and saved four points; the frustrated Eagles settled for a field goal.
Norman made a great play, but he was sort of beaten. He had no choice at the time but to sell out and dive to block the pass away from the Eagles player.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 7:
b. Folks online (Twitter, elsewhere) grousing they couldn’t watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville on their big screens. Stop. Just stop. Buffalo-Jacksonville, first of all. Second: It’s bonus football, in a specially created window because it’s a London game. Third: 95 percent of the complainers would never have watched this game anyway. So stop.
I love how Peter writes this. He's really pushing this Yahoo live stream isn't he? Peter wants to write about how popular the game was, while also dismissing the game as not being worth showing on television because it is Buffalo-Jacksonville. Apparently Buffalo-Jacksonville is good enough to be watched by 30 million+ people online, but not good enough to be shown on the television. This is as opposed to all those great games played in London that have been televised. You know, all those games between two teams that don't have winning records.
I actually tried to watch the game, but didn't feel like watching it on my computer. I did not complain about it, but I can understand why some people may have. Peter doesn't think this complaints are worth much though, because 95% (and that's an exact number) would not have watched this game anyway.
k. Brandon LaFell’s hands in his first game back from injury for New England. Four first-half drops. Six for the game.
Brandon LaFell at his worst. Hands of stone.
n. Valuable and versatile Carolina rookie hurricane Shaq Thompson (knee), who’s been an eye-opening addition, sitting on Sunday night.
q. The Bills’ inactive list for Sunday: the starting quarterback (Tyrod Taylor), two starting-caliber wideouts (Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin), one of the best defensive tackles in football (Kyle Williams), a starting offensive tackle (Seantrel Henderson), and an emerging running back (Karlos Williams).
Players get hurt. This is why an 18 game schedule would never work. I'm not sure the playoffs would be much fun to watch if the NFL went to an 18 game schedule.
y. Not to harp on this stat,
Peter will now harp on this stat. As soon as he says he doesn't want to or won't do something, he tends to do that exact thing.
but there’s a symmetry to the Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era now: Indy is 20-20 in games outside the division, including playoffs.
I mean, it was just last year that Peter was talking about what a great coach Chuck Pagano is and all of that. Now Peter is pointing out how the Colts can't beat teams that aren't in their division. Life comes at you fast.
Though his production has plummeted, he’s gotten paid. In his three post-Vikings seasons, Harvin has been paid $31.5 million. Comparing his production as a Viking to his production with the Seahawks, Jets and Bills:
• Vikings (54 games): 387 touches from scrimmage, 10.3 yards per touch, 24 touchdowns … 27.9 yards per kick return, five touchdowns.
• Seahawks, Jets, Bills (19 games): 109 touches from scrimmage, 8.7 yards per touch, three touchdowns … 24.8 yards per kick return, no touchdowns.
He's the Josh Freeman of wide receivers. Of course, Peter won't harp on Harvin's lack of production as he did for Freeman's lack of production because Harvin didn't help to get Peter's buddy fired.
8. I think if you believe Sunday was the end of the Jets for this season, after the Patriots made sure all is back to normal in the AFC East with a home win over New York, consider these points:
I don't know if anyone thought this was the end of the Jets for the season. I'm not sure why Peter is writing this.
• The Jets are 4-2.
• In the next seven weeks, they play teams with a combined record of 18-28: at Oakland (3-3), Jacksonville (2-5), Buffalo (3-4), at Houston (2-5), Miami (3-3), at the Giants (4-3), and Tennessee (1-5).
Tell me why it’s unlikely the Jets could be 10-3 entering the final three games of the season: a fascinating Week 15 Saturday night game at Dallas (with Tony Romo, presumably, back), the Patriots at home two days after Christmas, and a nippy affair at Buffalo three days into 2016. I’m just saying I certainly don't consider the AFC East race to be wide open, but it might not be over yet.
Peter, you are the one who is talking about how dominant the Patriots have been in their division. Not many other people are claiming the AFC race is over. You are countering an argument that I'm not sure many people are making.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
g. RIP Cory Wells, one of the lead singers of Three Dog Night. I show my age here, but I loved that band. “Shambala” and “Mama Told Me Not To Com,” were two of Wells’ best.
"Mama Told Me Not to Com" was the first song to encourage people to stay off the Internet. It's the anti-technology song to end all anti-technology songs. Mama told him not to com, but he logged on anyway. Probably to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville live stream.
k. Did you see the Georgia Tech player, waving teammates away from the loose ball that would become a return for the winning touchdown of Florida State-Georgia Tech? Good thing at least one Yellow Jacket paid no attention. Coaches: Don’t assume your players know all the rules.
NFL players don't know the rules. There is evidence the officials in the NFL don't know the rules. So this doesn't surprise me the players in college and the NFL may not know the rules.
m. Beernerdness: Had a Sidewinder Southwest Pale Ale (Revolver Brewing, Granbury, Texas), made with water from an aquifer on the property of the brewery—and a hint of agave, which is a first for me in a beer, I think—and really enjoyed it.
Peter drank a pale ale! This was a beer that didn't require a fruit or anything like a slice of an orange in it to taste good! This is progress!
n. Hockey’s a strange game. The Devils lost their first four games, 3-1, 5-3, 3-1 and 2-1. In the past week, they won their next four: 2-1, 3-2, 5-4 and 4-2.
It's crazy that one result for a team doesn't mean that team will have the result in every single game. How amazing that professional sports teams will play well or play poorly over short stretches of the season. What a country. Only in hockey.
The Adieu Haiku
The byes wreak havoc.
No Bengals, Packers, Broncos.
Week seven: quite meh.
There are six undefeated teams, but none of the undefeated teams were interesting enough for Peter. Much like the Adieu Haiku, Week 7 was "meh." In fact, the best thing about the week was the Yahoo live stream. What a great success for the NFL! Has Peter mentioned what a great success it was? He really enjoyed watching it in his apartment on the East Side of Manhattan.
Sunday was a historic day in the NFL, a little bit on the field, and a big bit off. On: Carolina’s 27-16 win over the Eagles means the NFL has five 6-0 teams simultaneously for the first time in league history—Carolina, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay and New England.
One team sticks out pretty badly on the list as not belonging. Probably the team that can't throw the football very well and has had a somewhat shaky time in the passing game with a thrice-rejected wide receiver as their #1 receiver.
And though Buffalo-Jacksonville in London wasn’t a marquee game, it accomplished just what the NFL and Yahoo, the provider, had hoped. Yahoo announced that it had 15.6 million unique viewers and 33.6 million total live streams of the game; roughly 33% of that viewership came from outside the U.S.
This goes to show that if the NFL live streams one game between two non-playoff teams then people will watch the game possibly. Also, it shows that Peter King is going to sound like he is doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. You know I have been somewhat suspicious about the NFL trying so damn hard to have success overseas, but Peter King is very, very fucking impressed with this first live stream result. This could open up the NFL to being able to live stream games and then not have games on television anymore. Which means NFL fans in the United States, you know, the people who buy the vast majority of the apparel, season tickets and actually support these teams, can all huddle around a computer or tablet (maybe even Roku!) at a party to watch a game stream. Sounds like fun.
And there’s little doubt that, though the league treats its 256 regular-season games like home-TV gold, it’s likely to parcel out more than one game to an internet company in 2016.
Probably not a bad idea. I bet the NFL's dream is to have teams in several different countries and never actually show the games on television. They can just live stream them all and everything will be great because people in other countries TOTALLY don't know that the NFL is a clusterfuck when it comes to concussions and doling out punishment to players who step outside the law or choose to deflate a football by a few PSI. Foreigners are so blind to all the NFL's faults. That's the ideal market for the NFL.
Let’s begin with the stories of the week, from south Florida, New England, Charlotte, London, Indianapolis, New Jersey and Seattle, with stuff about donuts, the ticking time bomb that is Greg Hardy, and the deep scar that won’t be leaving Lovie Smith anytime soon.
Man, having Rex Grossman as his quarterback in Chicago has really left an impression on Lovie Smith. I bet he has nightmares about Grossman randomly throwing the ball deep in the hopes of a completion.
Greg Hardy. I think the sooner we realize that Hardy is a member of the Dallas Cowboys only and absolutely only because he is a very good defensive end with rare pass-rush skills, the better off we’ll be.
Hey Peter, I think "we" already knew that Hardy is on the Cowboys roster because he's good at football and don't need to be reminded of this. If Hardy had a down year before his legal issues, like Ray Rice had, then maybe he wouldn't be defended and enabled like the Cowboys are doing for him. It's never been unclear as to why Hardy is with the Cowboys. If he couldn't play, he wouldn't be on the Cowboys roster.
The video put on air by Mike Florio at NBC on Sunday night, showing Hardy in a sideline conflagration with Dallas special-teams coach Rich Bisaccia—slapping the clipboard in the coach’s hand threateningly, causing the coach to shove Hardy and Hardy to get in his face—showed a player bordering on out of control.
Yeah, but he is a team leader according to Jerry Jones. This is just an example of Hardy being a leader and telling the special teams coach that as a leader of the Cowboys team he isn't going to give a flying fuck what he thinks and he feels the need to be disrespectful in order to prove just how much of a team leader he is.
Hardy is a troubled guy and enabling his behavior, as has been done during parts of his NFL career isn't going to help this situation stay in control.
I don't expect the Cowboys to cut Hardy. He plays too well. But it would be nice if, instead of saying things like what a great and fiery competitor he is, someone with the Cowboys would say: “If Hardy continues to act volcanic, he’s going to have to find somewhere else to play. If anyone will have him.”
Okay, well that's stupid Peter. The Cowboys are never going to publicly say that no one else will want Hardy nor will they say publicly he's on the edge of not being a Cowboy anymore. Should they? Possibly, but I don't think any NFL teams would call out a player on the team in this fashion. If a Cowboys player did it, and I'm sure at least one thinks it, then he knows his comments would be chum in the water for a circus surrounding the team. These types of comments just aren't happening.
Midway through the fourth quarter in a rout of Houston, Tannehill threw a 10-yard out pass to backup tight end Dion Sims. It was high, but Sims raised one hand and the ball bounced off it. Had he put both hands up, who knows? But it was a catchable ball, for sure. So Tannehill finished 18 of 19 for 282 yards with four touchdowns (all in the first 16 minutes) and no interceptions.
Player on the rise. Tannehill should play for the Rams so they could have a player on the rise for a team on the rise. In all non-snark, Tannehill has plenty of good players around him and it's about time the Dolphins let him play to the strengths of those players around Tannehill. Maybe now Tannehill won't feel the need to berate practice squad players, though I'm sure that report was totally untrue.
Afterward I said to Tannehill it was a shame about that 19th throw. “What’s that?” he said. You know, I said, the fact that it ruined his perfect day. He acted as if it wasn’t a big deal, because of the way the day was game-planned.
Peter loves to do this shit. He loves to be cutesy by bringing up the one thing that went wrong on an otherwise flawless day when interviewing a player, as if no one but Peter is aware that one thing went wrong. It's like Peter wants the player to come off as a team player and be like, "My God, you are so smart to notice this one thing I didn't notice about my or the team's performance today." Why the fuck would Tannehill think this missed pass was a big deal when the Dolphins played so well otherwise?
Obviously, the coaching change in Miami is agreeing with Tannehill. He’s an 83.3 percent passer in the two games since Dan Campbell took over. “He wants us to play like we played as kids, with a love of the game,” Tannehill said.
Peter King has a massive fucking erection right now. Ryan Tannehill says Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play the game like kids, precocious little kids who haven't a hair on their body from puberty and don't know the evils of life and how disappointing it is to grow up and be a man. Playing like kids for the love of the game as Peter stands to side and wonders why can't HE be a little kid. Then he could play the game like a little kid like Tannehill does. They could both be little kids, hugging after a touchdown, giving half-fives and grabbing some lemonade and hoping mom will let Ryan sleep over on a school night. Just this once. Brett Favre played the game like a child and that's how Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play, just like precocious little kids. Nothing is better in Peter's mind than watching kids play sports, even if he has to stay by law on the other side of the fence and at least 250 yards away from the action.
Dan Campbell. Stop saying, “Who cares? He’s beaten Tennessee and Houston, and they stink.”
I mean, I'm not saying that, but this is still a relevant point. Even if Joe Philbin was a disaster as a coach, it doesn't mean the Dolphins aren't playing above their head right now. Maybe not, but it's possible the Dolphins aren't as good as they have shown themselves to be over the last two games and Joe Philbin was terrible at his job. There is an opinion in between these two that could be factual.
Part of my job at NBC on Sundays is to pay particularly close attention to the 1 p.m. ET games before production work for the Football Night show begins in earnest. And the difference in the Dolphins has been startling. One sack in the first four games. Ten sacks in the two games since Campbell took over. Clearly the players are playing with more drive, more passion. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it’s going to show in your work, negatively. And it’s clear these players like playing for the new boss.
Well, the Dolphins also claimed to like playing for Joe Philbin at one point. Remember Cameron Wake with his "Philbin comes and talks to us at night and seems to really care for us now" comments? The Dolphins are now winning, which means they like playing for their coach.
Tom Brady. The Patriots are 6-0. Brady has thrown one interception, in 251 passes. For those inclined to hate him, or treat him the way so many baseball fans treat Alex Rodriguez, for instance, nothing he does will change your mind about him.
I don't know if I understand the A-Rod comparison here, but that may just be me. Even some Yankees fans don't like A-Rod, while Patriots fans are fiercely protective of Brady. I guess it's an easy comparison because they are both considered cheaters.
Rex Ryan. The Bills had the fourth-best defense, statistically, in football last year, and Ryan said in the spring, “I know we’ll be better this year.” They’re 11th this morning. Players are grousing about roles. The quarterback who played Sunday, EJ Manuel, shows occasional flashes of good deep-ball throwing, but he cannot be saved.
Another flashback moment...remember last year when Peter suggested that E.J. Manuel should just say "fuck it" and throw the ball deep down the field? I'm not sure what that memory has much to do with anything right now, but Peter's suggestion that Manuel can't be saved and he's good at throwing a deep ball every once in a while just made me remember it.
Kawann Short. Short is the one demanding more attention these days, and he’s proving that Gettleman was smart to eschew a receiver or cornerback early in that ’13 draft. When you can get quick big guys on the defensive front, Gettleman believes you never pass on them—and the pick of Short is proving him right.
Actually, when a team can get quick big guys on the defensive front, I think nearly every GM thinks you can't pass on these types of players. It's not just Gettleman who is smart enough to think, "Man, that big guy sure is fat, fast and dominant. Perhaps I should try to acquire him through the draft."
The great live-streaming experiment.
“First,” said Brian Rolapp, “we wouldn’t call it an experiment. We waited until now because we wanted to make sure the internet could handle it;
Of course. I mean, so many people have dial-up phones and Internet these days that the NFL and Yahoo had to make sure these people who wanted to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville game had enough free hours of AOL to watch the entire game.
My experiment with Bills-Jags on Yahoo,
Geez Peter, it's not an experiment!
I suppose, was not unlike others in the United States with things to do on Sunday morning. In my Manhattan East Side apartment, I tried two devices, a laptop and a smart phone, just before the game kicked off. Got into Yahoo.com immediately on both, and painlessly got the game up in time to see Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon give me a quick preview.
In Peter's "Manhattan East Side apartment" as opposed to simply, "my apartment," because it's important to know the exact location of Peter's apartment in order for this story about Internet to be told. Without Peter mentioning he lives on the East Side, I would have been totally confused.
Rolapp and some NFL employees watched from a conference room on Park Avenue. “We had it up on laptops, tablets, Surfaces, iPhones, Roku, Xbox, everything we could think of,” he said, “and the stream held up well on all of them.”
I'm amazed to hear the NFL didn't have problems with the live stream video of the NFL football game that is the beginning of a new era in how the NFL presents their product to consumers. Here I thought the NFL would report the live stream didn't work at all and they are giving up trying to live stream games and any revenue they may go along with it.
So the NFL wanted to see three things when it decided to take one of its three Sunday morning games from London and show it free on the internet only,
1. Will it lead to the league making more money?
2. Is there a way to present this product while also taking away a home game from one of the current NFL teams while also increasing how much money the NFL makes?
3. Will it lead to additional revenue for the NFL?
Two: The league wanted to see if there was an appetite for the game in some of the places where the NFL is underserved. Russia and China, for instance, and a Sunday morning game in Eastern Time would be a Sunday evening prime-time game in large swaths of Asia.
You know what? Fuck it, let's just put an NFL team in Taiwan. Why not? This live stream did well in that country, so obviously that means an entire NFL team can be supported in the country. Actually, here is a better idea. What if each NFL team has to play one international home game every year? Each team will play seven home regular season games per year and eight road games with an international game in there as a home game. Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged for 10 home games.
Three: Would it all go smoothly enough so that the project might expand and more games would be exclusively streamed to the net beginning next year?
And if it goes smoothly once, why not expand the project to see if the Internet can handle more games exclusively streamed to the net? What if the NFL just stopped having football games in actual stadiums, still charged money to watch the games on the Internet, and simply played games in an empty venue where every person who would normally watch the game in the stadium has to pay to watch it on a computer? Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged extra for the 10 games they would go to if they actually were able to attend any of these games.
The vast majority during the regular season and post-season are spoken for through 2020 and 2021. But there are three Sunday games (currently the early-window London games, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET) available, and there will be the Thursday night package in 2016; CBS is on a one-year deal for Thursdays in 2015, simulcasting with NFL Network and then ceding to NFL Network alone beginning in Week 9. That 16-game package is now up for negotiation for 2016 and beyond.
Money! Money! Money!
I think it’s likely there could be a Sunday game plus at least one Thursday game headed for the internet in 2016.
It's a great idea actually. Usually the Thursday night games are shit, so why not share that shit with the rest of the world that doesn't have CBS or NFL Network?
The MMQB asked fans around the world who watched the game on Sunday to send us their views of the streaming experience. Their responses were what you’d think if you watched: positive.
It's impossible for Peter to ignore this live streaming non-experiment of course, but it does sometimes feel like he's doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. Nary a negative word was spoken about the live stream. Apparently no person in the world had an issue viewing the live stream.
Tyrone Carriaga
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Gametime: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
“I watched at home using Apple TV. I watched because I do not see a live game as part of the TV package here. The start time was convenient as well. It looked like standard definition most of the game.
Standard definition? Where can I sign up for watching sports in standard definition? I have a television that I paid $2000 for which shows the best picture possible, but if I can get sports in standard definition instead of high definition then I'd like to sign up for this immediately!
The rest of the comments are basically an advertisement for Yahoo and the NFL, including:
“I watched at home, on my phone and then my laptop. I try to watch as many games as I can. Big NFL fan. Playing at Wembley adds a little something extra. It's great to see a soccer temple being used for football. The quality was excellent. I expected a less-fluent transmission, but it turned out to be flawless.
Overall it was good. Quality on par with NFL Game Pass [the NFL’s subscription streaming service for fans outside the U.S. and Mexico]. No hassle, just click the link and it worked.”
I'll take any bit of NFL football any way I can.
I feel like the famous picture of Peter beside Roger Goodell eating lunch should be somewhere in this MMQB. It is not though, much to my dismay.
Watching NFL games on TV in Brazil is a very choppy experience: Between snaps (commercial breaks, timeouts, on-field reporting etc.), a lot of footage you see in the U.S. doesn't get televised here, so the viewing experience is not as good. The online stream was a smooth and consistent viewing experience. It was great. Much better than expected. Yahoo outdid themselves on the streaming quality.”
What if the NFL televised games on the Internet AND on a regular television? Or would that not work because it would mix revenue streams too much? I'm glad the game was a success, but it was one game, so I'm not jumping out of my seat with excitement quite yet. But Peter wants everyone who reads MMQB to know this non-experiment was a success. There was no hassle and it was in standard definition. All dreams have come true.
More progress needs to be made. The co-chair of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, Seattle-based doctor Richard Ellenbogen, was in London for the conference. He is also one of the NFL’s unaffiliated head-trauma experts on the sidelines, and has the power to take a player off the field if he sees the player wobbly or otherwise showing symptoms of a concussion.
He has "the power" to do this. I'm a little confused as to how this gentleman is the co-chair of an NFL committee, but also unaffiliated with the NFL. Perhaps I'm just stupid. It just seems if he is the co-chair of an NFL committee then he is affiliated with the NFL in some way.
I asked Ellenbogen if he ever felt like he, and those in the think tank Saturday, held the future of football and perhaps other contact sports in their hands. It’s clear that football is under such fire that its existence could be threatened if the fathers of the game don’t do more for the health and safety of players.
Because, yes Peter, Ellenbogen is going to say the NFL's existence would be threatened if they don't do more for the health and safety of the players. He's the co-chair of an NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, but he will also pronounce the league DOA if he and the rest of his committee don't do more. I simply don't believe Ellenbogen would make it sound like the future of the NFL is in his hands, because that makes the situation sound dire. The NFL disapproves of this.
“No question it’s important,” Ellenbogen said. “But the unintended consequences of getting rid of contact sports would be an unmitigated disaster. Whatever we do, please do not have the conversation about banning these [contact] sports. The benefits of sports—for physical health, for the benefits of being on a team—far outweigh the risks. I can’t even imagine the consequences if enrollment started declining in sports like football and lacrosse.”
Ah yes, a doctor who sounds like he is carrying water for the NFL. The benefit of sports OVERALL far outweigh the risks, but the risks of individual sports could outweigh the benefits of those sports. It is not as if lacrosse, football or any other sports considered "dangerous" were no longer active sports that kids and adults would have no other way of being in good physical health or exercising in any fashion. Contact sports aren't the only sports which provide good physical benefits to those who participate in sports. There are plenty of other sports that adults and children could play which would provide an opportunity for good physical health. I'm not saying to ban football, but this doctor isn't doing too much to convince me he's not carrying water for the NFL by answering a question this way. Ellenbogen is making it sound like there are no other options for those who want to exercise, other than these contact sports.
“All losses hurt. Some leave a deep scar. This is one of those.”
—Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith. The Bucs blew a 24-0 lead at Washington and lost, 31-30.
This may not be a good thing for a head coach to say. The last thing a head coach usually wants is for his players to dwell on a difficult loss. Great way to set an example for a young quarterback and Lovie's team by saying a loss left a deep scar. Even if it's true, does Lovie really want his team focusing on the tough loss and not trying to move on to the next game? Kudos to him for being honest, I guess.
“If they trade me, I’d quit today.”
—Baltimore wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., perhaps nervous that one of the teams most inclined to trade in recent NFL history—the Ravens and their pragmatic GM, Ozzie Newsome—are on the verge of going 1-6 with the trading deadline eight days away. He made his remarks to the team’s website.
I don't believe Smith would retire if he were traded. Still, one can see why the Panthers inexplicably released Smith two seasons ago. It's not that he's a bad guy by any measure, but he can be difficult at times. This is one of those times. He'd rather continue to play on a losing team than move teams halfway through his last season in the NFL in an effort to get a Super Bowl ring.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, cornerback, New York Giants. There’s the Matt Cassel factor here—he threw interceptions on three straight series midway through the Giants’ 27-20 win over the Cowboys on Sunday in New Jersey—but credit Rodgers-Cromartie for being in the right place at the right time for two picks totaling 70 return yards and one touchdown.
The important thing to note here is that Peter believes Matt Cassel was terrible in his only start this season, yet later in MMQB Peter will make it seems like the Bills made a mistake by trading Cassel at the beginning of the season and keeping E.J. Manuel. I guess the terrible QB the Bills traded is better than the terrible QB on the Bills' roster.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
The Houston Texans. Just an awful performance, falling behind 41-0, being outgained at one point 275-0. Time to do the proverbial look-selves-in-the-mirror and the gut-check and, well, all the other clichés.
I can't imagine what could go wrong when the Texans collect every backup quarterback the Patriots didn't want. How can Bill O'Brien fail as a head coach? He is affiliated with the Patriots AND he seemed like such a decisive team leader when the cameras were rolling for "Hard Knocks." It's almost like cameras can lie.
EJ Manuel, quarterback, Buffalo.
He followed that up with interceptions on the next two series, including one right into the arms of Telvin Smith, who returned it for a touchdown. Great end zone view on the Yahoo stream, with Manuel staring the entire time at the spot he threw to, and Smith baiting and waiting. Easy pick.
Excellent view by that Yahoo stream. Enough about football, Peter wants to talk some more about Yahoo and how great the stream was of the Bills and Jaguars game. You could see, in standard definition, by how much Blake Bortles was overthrowing his receivers. What a country! No, because this was an international broadcast, what a world!
Buffalo’s worst nightmare—first when drafting Manuel in 2013, then when dealing Matt Cassel to Dallas for a 2017 fifth-round pick.
Is this their worst nightmare? Is Matt Cassel playing for the Bills really what would fix their season? Cassel didn't exactly blow the roof off the joint in his one start with the Cowboys behind a pretty good Cowboys offensive line. Is the crappy QB not on the roster really a better option than the crappy QB on the Bills' roster?
You may not recall this. It’s been almost 10 years. But when the Patriots decided to let Adam Vinatieri go in free agency, the team was criticized in some corners for not ponying up to re-sign the kicker, who’d been the epitome of clutch.
I remember it vividly. Shockingly, someone other than Peter King can recall events that occurred longer than a few years ago. It comes as a huge surprise to Peter this is true.
• In Vinatieri’s six years (regular-season and post-season) playing for Bill Belichick, he made 82.9 percent of his field goals.
• In Gostkowski’s 10 years playing for Belichick, he has made 87.7 percent of his field goals.
Yeah, but Vinatieri was the epitome of clutch, so that has to count for something, right?
In the last 10 games against each team in their division, the Patriots are:
• 8-2 against the Jets.
• 8-2 against the Dolphins.
• 8-2 against the Bills.
Again I will ask, is this a product of the Patriots being great or the division not being very good? The AFC South is crap and the Colts have been feeding from that division for quite a few years now, but when criticizing teams like the Seahawks who make the playoffs at 7-9 just remember there may be a 12-4 team that made the playoffs based on competing in a shitty division.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I traveled six miles Friday evening to Barclays Center—what a pleasant surprise, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Brasco, Don and Alissa Banks, there—to watch an Islanders hockey game. Hockey in Brooklyn. What a country.
Rich white people all got to the same hockey game in Brooklyn. Peter left his apartment on the East Side and went to this hockey game. What a country to see someone that Peter knows at a hockey game! What a world! What a planet! What a solar system!
The place wasn’t invented for hockey. I feel for the fans who have to travel from the Island to see the Islanders.
The venue sucked. What a country.
Bonus: The drinks and food are really good there. Brooklyn Lager on tap, with a slice of square Williamsburg Pizza, terrific crust and fairly light, complete with fresh basil.
The pizza had good crust and fresh basil? So basically it was...pizza?
I just saw the whole video of Cowboys Greg Hardy on the sidelines. He is totally out of control going after one of their coaches. Terrible.
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 26, 2015
I was unsure if this was terrible or not, but now that the Football Coach Jesus says it is, then I guess Greg Hardy's behavior was terrible. I bet Tony Dungy wants to mentor Greg Hardy. That is Dungy's thing. He wants to mentor. Perhaps someone should mentor Dungy on how to win more than one Super Bowl with Peyton Manning.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 7:
c. Fantastic throw, catch and lunge for the touchdown by the Jags’ Blake Bortles and Allen Robinson on the first touchdown of Sunday.
Ask Davon House, Blake Bortles can throw the ball just like Aaron Rodgers. Just minus the talent, throwing ability, feel for the pass rush and any other attribute that makes Rodgers so great.
i. Good CBS graphic in the first half at Foxboro: Pats 46-4 in their previous 50 home games, best 50-game home record in the league in at least the past 50 years.
BREAKING NEWS: The Patriots are a really good team.
m. The tip-of-the-fingertips catch by Gary Barnidge, Cleveland’s emerging stalwart tight end. (You just might read about him very soon at The MMQB.)
Don't tease us about this, Peter. I bet Barnidge is a free agent after this season and Peter wants to describe how Marvin Demoff (I have no idea if that is Barnidge's agent or not) can structure a compensation package exactly to where the Browns won't be able to compete with it.
p. Incredible effort by Detroit’s Ziggy Ansah, sprinting 72 yards to catch Adrian Peterson and knock him out of bounds at the 3-yard line. It saved Detroit four points. Instead of Peterson scoring a touchdown, the Vikes settled for a field goal.
This note about great hustle from Ansah will not appear in TMQ, because Ansah is a first round glory boy pick. If it does show up, I'm sure Peter would focus on how Peterson, a highly-drafted glory boy who brags about how great he is, was caught from behind.
w. The transcendent year Josh Norman is having for Carolina. Did you see the pass-breakup he had near the end of the first half, which looked absolutely like the touchdown the Eagles desperately needed? Norman sold out, flicked it away, and saved four points; the frustrated Eagles settled for a field goal.
Norman made a great play, but he was sort of beaten. He had no choice at the time but to sell out and dive to block the pass away from the Eagles player.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 7:
b. Folks online (Twitter, elsewhere) grousing they couldn’t watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville on their big screens. Stop. Just stop. Buffalo-Jacksonville, first of all. Second: It’s bonus football, in a specially created window because it’s a London game. Third: 95 percent of the complainers would never have watched this game anyway. So stop.
I love how Peter writes this. He's really pushing this Yahoo live stream isn't he? Peter wants to write about how popular the game was, while also dismissing the game as not being worth showing on television because it is Buffalo-Jacksonville. Apparently Buffalo-Jacksonville is good enough to be watched by 30 million+ people online, but not good enough to be shown on the television. This is as opposed to all those great games played in London that have been televised. You know, all those games between two teams that don't have winning records.
I actually tried to watch the game, but didn't feel like watching it on my computer. I did not complain about it, but I can understand why some people may have. Peter doesn't think this complaints are worth much though, because 95% (and that's an exact number) would not have watched this game anyway.
k. Brandon LaFell’s hands in his first game back from injury for New England. Four first-half drops. Six for the game.
Brandon LaFell at his worst. Hands of stone.
n. Valuable and versatile Carolina rookie hurricane Shaq Thompson (knee), who’s been an eye-opening addition, sitting on Sunday night.
q. The Bills’ inactive list for Sunday: the starting quarterback (Tyrod Taylor), two starting-caliber wideouts (Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin), one of the best defensive tackles in football (Kyle Williams), a starting offensive tackle (Seantrel Henderson), and an emerging running back (Karlos Williams).
Players get hurt. This is why an 18 game schedule would never work. I'm not sure the playoffs would be much fun to watch if the NFL went to an 18 game schedule.
y. Not to harp on this stat,
Peter will now harp on this stat. As soon as he says he doesn't want to or won't do something, he tends to do that exact thing.
but there’s a symmetry to the Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era now: Indy is 20-20 in games outside the division, including playoffs.
I mean, it was just last year that Peter was talking about what a great coach Chuck Pagano is and all of that. Now Peter is pointing out how the Colts can't beat teams that aren't in their division. Life comes at you fast.
Though his production has plummeted, he’s gotten paid. In his three post-Vikings seasons, Harvin has been paid $31.5 million. Comparing his production as a Viking to his production with the Seahawks, Jets and Bills:
• Vikings (54 games): 387 touches from scrimmage, 10.3 yards per touch, 24 touchdowns … 27.9 yards per kick return, five touchdowns.
• Seahawks, Jets, Bills (19 games): 109 touches from scrimmage, 8.7 yards per touch, three touchdowns … 24.8 yards per kick return, no touchdowns.
He's the Josh Freeman of wide receivers. Of course, Peter won't harp on Harvin's lack of production as he did for Freeman's lack of production because Harvin didn't help to get Peter's buddy fired.
8. I think if you believe Sunday was the end of the Jets for this season, after the Patriots made sure all is back to normal in the AFC East with a home win over New York, consider these points:
I don't know if anyone thought this was the end of the Jets for the season. I'm not sure why Peter is writing this.
• The Jets are 4-2.
• In the next seven weeks, they play teams with a combined record of 18-28: at Oakland (3-3), Jacksonville (2-5), Buffalo (3-4), at Houston (2-5), Miami (3-3), at the Giants (4-3), and Tennessee (1-5).
Tell me why it’s unlikely the Jets could be 10-3 entering the final three games of the season: a fascinating Week 15 Saturday night game at Dallas (with Tony Romo, presumably, back), the Patriots at home two days after Christmas, and a nippy affair at Buffalo three days into 2016. I’m just saying I certainly don't consider the AFC East race to be wide open, but it might not be over yet.
Peter, you are the one who is talking about how dominant the Patriots have been in their division. Not many other people are claiming the AFC race is over. You are countering an argument that I'm not sure many people are making.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
g. RIP Cory Wells, one of the lead singers of Three Dog Night. I show my age here, but I loved that band. “Shambala” and “Mama Told Me Not To Com,” were two of Wells’ best.
"Mama Told Me Not to Com" was the first song to encourage people to stay off the Internet. It's the anti-technology song to end all anti-technology songs. Mama told him not to com, but he logged on anyway. Probably to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville live stream.
k. Did you see the Georgia Tech player, waving teammates away from the loose ball that would become a return for the winning touchdown of Florida State-Georgia Tech? Good thing at least one Yellow Jacket paid no attention. Coaches: Don’t assume your players know all the rules.
NFL players don't know the rules. There is evidence the officials in the NFL don't know the rules. So this doesn't surprise me the players in college and the NFL may not know the rules.
m. Beernerdness: Had a Sidewinder Southwest Pale Ale (Revolver Brewing, Granbury, Texas), made with water from an aquifer on the property of the brewery—and a hint of agave, which is a first for me in a beer, I think—and really enjoyed it.
Peter drank a pale ale! This was a beer that didn't require a fruit or anything like a slice of an orange in it to taste good! This is progress!
n. Hockey’s a strange game. The Devils lost their first four games, 3-1, 5-3, 3-1 and 2-1. In the past week, they won their next four: 2-1, 3-2, 5-4 and 4-2.
It's crazy that one result for a team doesn't mean that team will have the result in every single game. How amazing that professional sports teams will play well or play poorly over short stretches of the season. What a country. Only in hockey.
The Adieu Haiku
The byes wreak havoc.
No Bengals, Packers, Broncos.
Week seven: quite meh.
There are six undefeated teams, but none of the undefeated teams were interesting enough for Peter. Much like the Adieu Haiku, Week 7 was "meh." In fact, the best thing about the week was the Yahoo live stream. What a great success for the NFL! Has Peter mentioned what a great success it was? He really enjoyed watching it in his apartment on the East Side of Manhattan.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
4 comments MMQB Review: Peter King Still Doesn't Know What a Factoid Is Edition
Peter King again confirmed last week that Andy Dalton and the Bengals look like a totally different team now. He's all along stated the real test for the Bengals will be during the postseason, but I guess he can't ignore how well the Bengals are playing, yet it seems like he's judging the Bengals before he states they should be judged. Peter also advocated for Leonard Fournette to stay in college, because it's not so hard to come back from a torn ACL or anything. Todd Gurley did it after all. This week talks about the Colts (or the "Dolts" as he called them), Dan Campbell's coming out (not like that, he's just a bro who likes to chill with other bros, not that there is anything wrong with liking other bros in that way, but he just doesn't) party, and bids US Airways a non-fond adieu. Not to be confused with his Adieu Haiku, which is still awful.
Week 6, NFL, 2015. Memorable for the worst coaching decision since Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in the American League Championship Series about 16 batters too long in 2003.
It always comes back to the Red Sox in some way. Peter takes his writing cues from Bill Simmons.
And for two drives that will change the narrative on Cam Newton. Or should.
It won't, because the NFL is a week-to-week league. If Cam looks horrible next week then the narrative will then change back to what it was previously.
The Jets are 4-1, all the wins by double digits, and are better than anyone but Todd Bowles’ mother thought. Seattle is 2-4, can’t block anybody, and had another of its weekly late-game defensive meltdowns. Pittsburgh’s third-string quarterback, Landry Jones, beat a terrific defense, Arizona’s. The Broncos limped out of Cleveland, bordering on apologizing for an overtime win and being 6-0. In Green Bay, Philip Rivers threw for 503 yards and the Chargers lost; Eddie Lacy ran for three yards and the Packers won.
IT'S THE CRAZIEST NFL SEASON EVER! USUALLY THE NFL SEASON IS SO PREDICTABLE, BUT THIS YEAR IT IS NOT!
Soon, an unsatisfying explanation for the coaching play-call that took all the air out of Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday night, ruining the drama in the Revenge Bowl. And break up the Dolphins, give the Coach of the Year award to Dan Campbell, and take Miami’s defensive roster off the side of a milk carton.
Peter hates it when the drama is ruined. He loves drama! Drama makes writing MMQB so much easier.
First, though, the Panthers had never won in Seattle, and Cam Newton had never beaten Seattle, and it sure didn’t look like that was going to change with eight minutes left in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle up by nine Sunday. But Seattle’s not Seattle anymore.
Maybe Seattle is still Seattle, but it's just that they are the type of team who uses defense and timely offense to get victories. They keep the games closer (not intentionally of course), so there are times when they will end up on the losing side of close games. Ron Rivera was 2-14 in games decided by a touchdown or less at one point, but now that's starting to even out more. These things tend to even out over time.
And Cam Newton’s better than you think.
I'm not sure he's better than I think. I think he is exactly what I think he is.
Also, there are very few quotes from Newton in this MMQB. Nearly all the quotes come from Greg Olsen. I'm thinking the King-Newton beef hasn't been entirely squashed. Somebody may still be a bit immature about the whole "entertainer/icon" thing. Or maybe Peter didn't want quotes from Newton.
For quarterbacks, the important time of games is always late. Bill Walsh once said he wanted a quarterback whose heart rate would measure late in the fourth quarter what it measured in a Wednesday afternoon practice. That’s the way Cam Newton played Sunday, when it got very late in the funhouse of CenturyLink Field, and the locals thought their recent bad fortune was about to turn,
I have to snicker at the "bad fortune" comment since the NFL officials seemed to almost hand the Seahawks a victory (again) against the Lions a few weeks ago. I guess my definition of bad fortune is different from Peter's definition.
Drawing a line of demarcation at the 52-minute mark of the game shows what happened with Newton’s play at Seattle.
Newton was awful in the beginning of the game. If you switch these numbers around then he would be bashed for struggling in the fourth quarter while his first three quarters were stellar. The narrative would then change.
Down 23-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Newton looked at his receiver group. Six pass-catchers would rotate in and out of the lineup on the last two drives, including three who had a total of 14 catches all seasons—
"All seasons..." Winter, Summer, Fall, and Spring. All seasons they only caught 14 passes.
Catches by Dickson and Funchess on the first drive put the ball at the Seattle 33, and then Newton hit Olsen, his favorite target, with a seam rout about 20 yards downfield, and it took two Seahawks to drag him down at the 1. Jonathan Stewart bulled in from a yard out, and Carolina was a touchdown away.
I'm shocked that Peter didn't mention the missed extra point by Graham Gano. The new extra point rule played a part in the outcome of the game and Peter didn't mention it. If Gano had hit the extra point, then the Panthers only would have had to hit a field goal, not score a touchdown, to win the game.
Now it was Carolina’s ball at the Seattle 26 with 37 seconds left. Down three. No timeouts left. Logic said take a shot or two downfield, then settle for the equalizing field goal and overtime.
Logic is stupid. Playing for overtime in Seattle is stupid. Win on this drive or go home.
First shot: sending Olsen up the seam, similar to what Newton had done on the previous drive.
Mike Shula running a similar play two drives in a row? I don't believe it.
And that was the call—though it almost cost Carolina five yards. “We were running out of time in the huddle because there was so much noise, and it was late coming in,” said Olsen. “Cam called it really fast,
Of course Cam can call it fast. He wants to be an entertainer and icon, so he's probably also good at rapping. That comes in handy in this situation.
An incredibly fortunate thing happened: Seattle’s secondary was playing two different coverages on the play because the call from the sidelines hadn’t reached all 11 players, and the noise was deafening; this is the one time when the crowd noise actually hurt the Seahawks.
The ball was perfectly thrown, hitting Olsen midway through the end zone. Accusatory fingers flew in the Seattle secondary, players pointing at each other. Like: I thought he was YOUR man!
Notice how it's usually coaching that causes the Seahawks to lose? The Panthers got a call in late through the noise, but the Seahawks (seemingly) got the call in on time and the defensive players didn't all have the same play call. Gregg Easterbrook is sure to mention this play this week, but along with the "run or pass?" call in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks seem to only lose because their coaches screw up.
Carolina took control of the NFC South with the win. The Panthers have a defense that makes it hard for foes to breathe. And they’ve got a quarterback who knows how to put some ugly series behind him, and play his best when the best is essential. The Carolina team that overcame Seattle in the fourth quarter is going to be a tough team to beat down the stretch.
That is, until the Panthers lose to the Eagles and Colts at home, at which point the narrative will be, "Can the Panthers score enough points to beat decent football teams?"
Observations after Patriots 34, Colts 27:
• It wasn’t that close.
• Reasonable people can disagree, but the fake-punt attempt by the Colts is the dumbest play-call I’ve seen in 31 years covering the NFL.
I don't understand it at all. I've seen some dumb play calls, but that was just a bizarre fake punt. It was like on Super Tecmo Bowl for SNES where if you move the nose tackle just enough up or down at the snap then you could dive and sack the quarterback before he drops back to pass. The alignment of the Colts players just seemed like the play was doomed to fail immediately.
When New England tries a zany-formation play, it works to perfection. When Indianapolis does, it looks like the team is coached by Jim Carrey.
Well, this is an interesting reference for the year 2015. Though, at least Jim Carrey knows "laces out" on a field goal attempt, so that has to mean something.
Sunday night, the Colts were down 27-21 with 16 minutes left, with a fourth-and-3 at their 37-yard line.
16 minutes left? Why not just write "1 minute from the end of the third quarter"?
Before the snap, nine Colts shifted wide right in a scrum, with safety Colt Anderson, for some reason, lining up under center. (The center, by the way, was wide receiver Griff Whalen. Whatever could go wrong? A wideout snapping to a safety, on the biggest play of the game?) The Patriots, confused initially, ended up with two players lining up over center, and three more nearby. At the snap, Anderson got plowed under, first by rushing/running back Brandon Bolden, as he tried to sneak, feebly, for the first down. Loss of one. Loss of hope.
I've defended Pagano and I would probably still take him over Ryan Grigson, if it came down to that, but this all comes down to coaching for me. One team was prepared and the other didn't seem to be.
Second disturbing thing: The decision by coach Chuck Pagano to install the play and to run it says to me that the Colts think they have only a ghost of a chance to win the game playing it straight. Maybe there’s good reason for that. After the Colts led 21-20 at the half, Indy opened the second half with these six possessions: punt, punt, fake-punt debacle, punt, punt, turnover on downs. The only way we’ve got a chance is to draw up lottery-ticket plays. Is that what the Colts think?
The Seahawks ran a flea-flicker against the Panthers that scored a touchdown. It doesn't mean they installed the play because they didn't believe they could beat the Panthers playing the game straight, they just thought it would be a play that worked. The same goes for the Colts. They drew up a fake-punt because they thought it would work and it doesn't reflect on them as desperate necessarily.
It’s one thing to try some pie-in-the-sky play like that with a minute left, a desperate play for desperate times. But with 16 minutes left? With one of the best punters in the league, Pat McAfee, having a chance to pin New England inside its 20? With the Patriots having punted on two previous series? Just not smart.
Contrarily, if the Colts were punting in this situation with 8 minutes left in the game then maybe the Patriots would look for a fake-punt. There's no reason to try a fake-punt here, so perhaps the element of surprise would help the play work. I'm sure that was some of the thinking behind the play call.
Pagano: “I take responsibility there. The whole idea there was, on a fourth-and-3 or less, shift to an alignment where you either catch them misaligned, they try to sub some people in, catch them with 12 men on the field. If you get a certain look, 3 yards, 2 yards, you can make a play. But again, we shifted over, and I didn't do a good enough job coaching it during the week. ... That's all on me.
Yeah, I still don't understand. So the play wasn't a fake-punt, but an elaborate attempt to get the Patriots to jump offsides?
There’s a third disturbing thing, as it turns out, about the fake punt: Punter Pat McAfee said they’d been working on the play since last year. Interesting: You’ve worked on a fake punt play since last year, and it’s an illegal formation, and there’s miscommunication, and it fails embarrassingly.
Is Peter using the right word when he says, "disturbing?" Are any of these things really "disturbing" in any way? It doesn't seem that way to me. Why is Peter constantly using the word "disturbing" in regards to a play call that didn't work? There are things that are disturbing and I don't think a bad play call in a football game is one of them.
If you’re owner Jim Irsay, and you already were reticent to give Pagano a lucrative extension last off-season, and you see your franchise look like the Keystone Cops in the game of the year, what kind of chance is there you’ll give the coach a bigger extension post-season?
What's the chance they can hire a better coach than Pagano? I'm just asking because I don't know.
Andrew Luck has to do more. He has to play better against the Patriots. If he’s a franchise quarterback, and I believe he surely is, franchise quarterbacks can’t go 0-5 against their biggest nemeses, completing 52.6 percent of one’s passes with more interceptions (10) than touchdowns (nine).
While I agree, Andrew Luck has done a lot to cover up many of the issues the Colts team has. Over four seasons he has covered up for a mediocre offensive line, running game and (I think) for a defense that probably isn't good enough. It's okay to go hard on Luck, but he's covered up for the Colts' weaknesses to even put them in a situation to play the Patriots in the playoffs.
Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era versus the AFC South: 19-2.
Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era versus all other teams: 20-19.
Meanwhile, the critics of the Patriots say they beat up on a crappy division and teams that play in a tough division (like the Bengals...traditionally at least) have to play a road playoff game because they lose games in their tough division. It's been this way for the Colts a lot over the years. It feels like quite a few years they had the division wrapped up with a couple games to go, followed by questions like, "Should the Colts rest Manning and their starters in the last couple of games?"
The Patriots had to walk out of Lucas Oil Stadium early this morning thinking: Not bad. We put up 34 points on a team with a better defense than we’ve seen in Indy in years, we didn’t even get Rob Gronkowski involved in the first half, we punted five times, we handed them seven points on an interception that bounced out of Julian Edelman’s hands into Mike Adams’ for a touchdown, and we couldn’t hear ourselves think for three quarters because the place sounded like Seattle.
But Seattle isn't Seattle anymore, remember?
Now it could get interesting for New England: In five days starting Sunday, the 5-1 Jets and possibly resurgent Dolphins come to Foxboro. A sweep of those games and the AFC East could be wrapped up by Halloween.
Not that Peter is reactionary, but the Dolphins win one game and they are "possibly resurgent."
John Elway played 256 games in his NFL career, and he threw 7,901 passes. He never was concerned about the inflation level of the football he threw. But after the Tom Brady scandal erupted earlier this year, he was curious. He went to his equipment staff, and had footballs inflated to 13 psi, and 12 psi, and 11 psi, and he felt them and tested them himself.
“I mean, it’s not that big a difference,” said Elway. “It’s hard to tell the difference. Not a big-enough difference to have the attention on this that it’s gotten.
Roger Goodell will suspend John Elway for four games because he's criticizing the attention the PSI of the Patriots footballs has gotten. It makes Goodell look bad, like this isn't a fight the league should be having, which is totally not true. This is a worthy fight for the NFL to be having and Elway's suspension is now a lifetime ban.
Of course, Elway isn’t alone in thinking the balls should be, within reason, left without regulation. But the fact is there are rules in the NFL, and the balls must be inflated between 11.5 psi and 12.5 psi when measured on gauges in the officials’ locker room two hours before the start of games. Until the rules are changed, if they ever are, quarterbacks will have to use footballs at that pressure.
And that is very, very true. Thems the rules, though I wonder if Goodell has heard the old adage "Pick your fights wisely." Is ball inflation really a big battle Goodell wants to have? Apparently so. The need to make it seem like he wasn't going easy on the Patriots was that great.
Remember last week in this space, when I asked interim Miami coach Dan Campbell if he had a message he wanted to deliver to Miami fans?
No Peter, no one but you can remember this. Thank God you are here to remind us of things our feeble minds can't wrap themselves around. Also, you are a shitty speller. Learn to use a search engine like Google so that you spell words like Krueger correctly.
We’re about to wake the sleeping giant,” Campbell said, with more than a touch of Vincent Price in his voice. (Or Freddy Kruger, for you youngsters.)
Yes, Freddy Kruger (it's actually "Krueger") for you "youngsters" that are 31 years old since "Nightmare on Elm Street" came out in 1984. 1984. That was three decades ago. I don't know if I would consider a 31 year old to be a youngster or not, but Freddy Krueger isn't exactly a current pop culture reference.
Owner Stephen Ross handed Campbell the game ball and said, “The sleeping giants have awoken.”
Then Stephen Ross called up Jim Harbaugh and offered him the head coaching job with the Dolphins.
Campbell—39, younger than Peyton Manning—accepted the game ball and said, with a touch of warning about keeping the pressure on foes for the next 11 games: “The sleeping giant is awake. But he can’t take a nap!”
Okay bro, even your bro Jay Glazer thinks this metaphor is played out now (much like me writing "bro" in relation to Dan Campbell). Let's throw some "Entourage" on and get ready to hit this new nightclub where the mixed drinks are especially flavorful and the straws are super-small for the maximum amount of bro-ness as we hit the dance floor when we hear some Pitbull come on.
Miami had six sacks (six times as many as they had in the previous four games combined), ran the ball better than it had all season, swarmed around Marcus Mariota menacingly and got a verbal salvo from Tennessee coach Ken Whisenhunt for—his feeling about defensive end Olivier Vernon—purposely trying to hurt Mariota.
Dan Campbell wants Ken Whisenhunt to just be cool. (Campbell holds his arms out like, "Come at me") If the Wiz wants to question how Campbell runs his team, that's cool, but just don't actually do it and call the Dolphins out. That's where trouble still starts, bro. (Dan Campbell starts removing his wife beater in preparation to fight)
When I thought was great about Campbell’s post-game talk to his team was that he recognized the practice-squad players and the backups whose job he has made it to give the starters a very tough week of practice. Campbell is like one of his longtime mentors, Bill Parcells:
I'm so tired of Peter King talking about Bill Parcells as the epitome of a coach who is hard on his players. Please stop. He was great, but please stop referencing him in this way. There are other NFL coaches who have been hard on his players.
You’d better practice, and practice hard and well, or you won’t be playing on Sunday.
This is as opposed to other NFL coaches who don't care if their players practice hard and well.
Miami played with such fervor Sunday, unlike they did for much of the season’s first four games under Joe Philbin. If you don’t play with consistent abandon under Campbell, he’s likely to yank you.
This is just like Bill Parcells used to coach. Is Dan Campbell as good of a coach as Bill Parcells was? It's too early to say, but it's no coincidence that Campbell hasn't lost an NFL game as a head coach yet. He's on his way to being better than Bill Parcells. He's a coach on the rise!
“We’re five or six games into the season,” said Wake. (They’re 2-3, actually.)
Math be hard.
Tennessee is not a good team right now, to be sure. So Miami might have won this game with anyone coaching. But Campbell’s influence showed up in the intensity of the play. Few teams will be more intriguing than Miami for the next couple of months.
I would venture to say there are only going to be about 31 other teams that are as intriguing as the Dolphins over the next couple of months.
Presented without comment.
Which means Peter will provide comment.
Well, with a little comment.
Obviously it would happen this way.
I thought: I bet I could make a pretty good team, maybe even a Pro Bowl team, of guys who’ve missed time due to injury in the first six weeks of the season. Then I thought: I bet I could make one of those teams in the NFC East alone.
And so I did.
And Peter King said, "Let's make it so."
What follows is a starting lineup of players in the NFC East who have missed time with injuries, or are on injured reserve or the physically-unable-to-perform list, with number of games missed in parentheses following the name.
Except for Thompson, who was fighting for a job in training camp when he tore his Achilles, every one of the 22 other players is a solid starter, or, in the event of Scandrick, one of the best nickel corners in football.
Ronald Leary just got benched and a few of these guys only missed 1-2 football games. It's early in the season and that may be the sum total of what these guys miss. Not to mention, no one has a clue if Randy Gregory is a solid starter or not. He's a rookie, so how the hell does Peter know Gregory is a solid starter? Or is Peter just writing this in the hopes that his readers will just read what he's written and not question it?
“I think it was done with the idea of trying to hurt our quarterback and that’s bull---- football. I thought it was BS.”
—Tennessee coach Ken Whisenhunt, angry at Miami DE Olivier Vernon’s low hit on rookie Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, which left the quarterback with a slight limp the rest of the day.
Hey, be cool bro. Don't wake the sleeping giant when that sleeping giant wants to tear someone's ACL all up.
“Let’s go Mets! … I cannot believe I uttered those words.”
—Former Atlanta slugger Chipper Jones, a career nemesis to the Mets, on the Mets pre-game radio show on WOR Radio in New York on Thursday night.
This is an abomination and Chipper Jones should be embarrassed for himself.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Chris Boswell, kicker, Pittsburgh. Kicking in what has been the most difficult stadium in the league to make long field goals, Boswell continued to show the Steelers made the right decision in cutting the experienced Josh Scobee and signing the green Boswell last month. He was four-for-four in field goals Sunday—from 47, 48, 51 and 28 yards—as the Steelers surprised Arizona at Heinz Field.
The Cardinals didn't even know they were playing the Steelers on Sunday. The Steelers surprised Arizona at Heinz Field by showing up and requesting a football game be played. The fans were already there and the entire Cardinals team had shown up for a Sunday practice, so they figured they may as well play. I like to think the Steelers team popped up out of the middle of the field to dramatic music as a way of making their grand entrance and surprise the Cardinals.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Joe Marciano, special teams coach, Detroit. This is a team award, really, after a superbly executed fake punt with the Lions down seven with 5:38 left in the fourth quarter of a tight game against Chicago. Credit to long-snapper Don Muhlbach for making an odd snap in punt formation; instead of snapping all the way back to punter Sam Martin, Muhlbach snapped it six yards back at an angle to upback Isa Abdul-Quddus. Perfect snap. Abdul-Quddus sprinted around left end, got two good seal blocks, and ran 30 yards downfield, the key play on a field-goal drive. Perfect design and execution.
Is this what the Lions think? They can only beat the Bears by drawing up lottery ticket plays? This is very disturbing that the Lions think they have to make a desperate play at at desperate time to beat one of their NFC North rivals. Peter King thinks this is all very disturbing.
Six-game stats for the former and current New Orleans Saints starting tight ends:
Except Graham has played about as badly as he ever has his career and he's still a better tight end than Ben Watson is right now. So if Peter's point is that Ben Watson isn't as good as Jimmy Graham, even when Graham is at his worst, then this is a job well done.
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Two things that probably shouldn't annoy me, but do:
1. Peter really, really, really needs to find a dictionary. A "factoid" is not "a small fact," it is a fact of questionable accuracy. So either Peter is writing, "Hey guys, I may be lying to you right now" or he just doesn't know the definition of a factoid.
2. There are two factoids here. So "Factoid" in the title needs to be plural. There are two factoids, not just one.
When NBC went to commercial break after the Colts’ bizarre fake-punt play that turned into a monumental failure Sunday night, the bumper music was “There Must Be Some Misunderstanding,” by Genesis.
The backstory: NBC’s lead audio technician, Wendel Stevens, makes a playlist for the Sunday night games. “There Must Be Some Misunderstanding” was not on the original playlist. After the botched fake punt, Stevens quickly found it and put it on the air.
This was a heads-up move by Stevens, but as the lead audio technician isn't this his job to call an audible and put music on that might better fit the situation during the game? I don't want to take away from the job he did, but I would imagine the audio technicians call an audible often during a game to different music being played than what was scheduled.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
On the last two days of US Airways’ existence—I have made it a point to only fly US Airways if every other airline is absolutely unavailable, because it has been a Double-A carrier, at best—I was scheduled to fly it on four segments, back and forth to Roanoke, as I was going to visit the Arizona Cardinals as they practiced last week at The Greenbrier Resort, which is in the middle of nowhere in southeastern West Virginia, about 105 miles from Roanoke.
It's West Virginia. Pretty much everything is in the middle of nowhere, unless you are located in the center of Charleston or Morgantown. Even once you leave those cities, then you are back in the middle of nowhere. If you don't feel a slight twinge of nerves about driving in West Virginia, while hoping your car doesn't break down as yet another mud-covered truck passes you, then you aren't doing West Virginia right.
The first segment was LaGuardia in New York to Philadelphia, Thursday at 6 a.m., connecting with a flight to Roanoke at 8:25. At about 5:40, there was an announcement that departure would be delayed by a mechanical issue. Delay. Delay. More delay. At 6:35, this announcement: “If you have a connection in Philadelphia, we’re not sure when this flight will leave, so you might want to visit our service desk and change your flight.” Went to service desk. Only option on US Air to get me to the Cardinals so I could see the coaches and players post-practice: fly to National Airport in northern Virginia at 7 a.m., rent a car, drive 246 miles to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. And so I did it.
Pain in the neck, but I did it.
I don't use the word "hero" very often and never take my use of it lightly. I have to think that Peter King driving 246 miles instead of flying that distance is being a true hero. Sometimes I think we lose sight as a society of what's important. Peter had a story to write and he was going to write that story, even if it meant not laying back on an airplane and catching some sleep. I bet Peter even took the time to fill the car up with gas so he wouldn't be charged an exorbitant amount of money for gas.
Next morning: Roanoke to Charlotte, Charlotte to LaGuardia. The tiny Charlotte puddle-jumper smelled like my late grandmother’s cedar closet, without the cedar.
What's Peter been doing in his late grandmother's cedar closet? Did he hang out there when he was younger? Was he banished there when he was bad or used the word "factoid" correctly? I'm very interested in Peter's late grandmother's cedar closet and why Peter was spending time in a stinky closet.
The Charlotte-to-Laguardia leg was only 65 minutes late.
I’m sure US Airways has some quality employees and good people. But I won’t miss it a bit.
And now that US Airways is gone, I am sure all air travel for Peter will be stress and hassle free. All flights will land on time and he'll never sit beside someone who takes their shoes off on a long flight.
I get the snark here, but this is how baseball players decide if one of the unwritten rules has been broken or not. If a player on the opposing team does something to piss off a group of players on one team, then an unwritten rule has been broken at that point. The Braves did not like how long Carlos Gomez circled the bases and yelled at one of the Braves players, so it's time for Brian McCann to stand up and not take it anymore. The Rangers don't like how long Jose Bautista admired one of his home runs, so it is time to hit him with a baseball the next time he is up to bat. It's snark, but it's true snark.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 6:
a. The return of Luke Kuechly. Led all tacklers with 13 at Seattle in a game that might be a change agent for the Carolina franchise.
Or it might not be a change agent. We'll see how things change when Carolina loses a few games. Narratives and stories change so much in the NFL, it's hard to just pronounce a franchise changed after a regular season victory.
d. Pierre Garcon undressing the best corner in football, Darrelle Revis, on a first-quarter touchdown pass. Revis, it appeared, feared Garcon on the fade and so let him come inside,
Did Revis let Garcon come inside to grandma's cedar closet? God knows what happens in there, but it smells very bad apparently.
i. Andy Dalton’s high-arcing rainbow deep downfield that Marvin Jones wrestled from two Bills. Just a beautiful throw, and a physically impressive catch by Jones.
This is what I mean about Andy Dalton and the story around him changing. If Marvin Jones doesn't come down with this catch, then it's same old Andy Dalton throwing a ball up for grabs and committing a turnover. Jones had to wrestle the ball from two Bills, so you can see how this would go badly for Dalton had Jones not come down with the ball.
q. The Ravens extending the contract of Marshal Yanda. Despite the debacle of the team's season, Yanda is the Ravens’ number two (behind Joe Flacco) cornerstone player.
All respect to Marshal Yanda, but when a football team's number two cornerstone player is a guard then I do have to wonder if that team has drafted well enough of late. I don't think Yanda is the number two cornerstone player for the Ravens anyway, but I don't think it's good news for an NFL team if their second cornerstone player is an offensive guard.
t. And Jerricho Cotchery’s invaluable third-down conversion catch, after a wrestling match with Seahawn corner DeShawn Shead, just before the TD catch heard ‘round the Carolinas.
Don't include South Carolina. They have been piggybacking on North Carolina for too long now and I'm tired of it. We give them Panthers training camp and call them the "Carolina" Panthers but we all know which state the team really belongs to.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 6:
f. Know where you are near the sideline, Dexter McCluster. Having a foot out of bounds late in the first half probably cost the Titans a field-goal try before halftime in a game in which points were scarce for Tennessee.
McCluster was probably scared of waking the sleeping giant or something if he got both feed in bounds on this catch. Dan Campbell would be pretty pissed if McCluster came down with this catch and the sleeping giant would get woken up even more.
j. Well, the Jarryd Hayne story was fun while it lasted. For the second time in the first six weeks of the season, Hayne fumbled a punt, and the 49ers are not good enough to hand away potential possessions once every three games because they like the former Australian Rugby League player’s potential. It’ll be interesting to see how coach Jim Tomsula handles the punt-return job going forward; Hayne stayed in the role after fumbling early against the Ravens. He also missed a blitz pick-up in the backfield.
It's almost like an athlete who hasn't played football at a high level for a very long time simply can't just walk on the field and have his talents in another sport translate to the NFL. It was a fun story for the NFL media to blow up as much as they could, but once Jarryd Hayne starts boring them by playing like someone who hasn't played much NFL football over his lifetime, they will get bored and move on to another story.
3. I think you’re blowing it, Johnny Manziel.
4. I think I’m empathetic with anyone who has a substance-abuse problem. But Manziel spent 87 days in a treatment center in the off-season.
This should all be under #3 in Peter's MMQB outline. It's the same topic, so why is he separating out the same discussion of Johnny Manziel and how he's ruining his football career into two different numbers on his outline?
5. I think if I were Jim Irsay, and I had become convinced I wasn’t going to sign Chuck Pagano long-term, I’d set up a very private meeting—maybe at a private home somewhere, or maybe at the Westin Detroit Airport,
Not to be too specific or anything like that of course. I'm surprised Peter didn't list the floor number and exact room that they should meet in.
somewhere both men could go without anyone thinking it odd—with Jim Harbaugh after the season. At the very least I’d use an intermediary to find out what Harbaugh’s price was, if he had one. Not that I’d expect Harbaugh to take the job.
Yes, one couldn't expect Jim Harbaugh to take the Indianapolis Colts job since he's shown through his career that he is so dedicated to staying with one team and it's not like he was run out of San Francisco or anything. So Harbaugh probably wouldn't want the head coach job with an NFL team he used to play for, with the quarterback who he coached in college, with the offensive coordinator who worked for him at Stanford or anything like that, especially since he probably would still be coaching in the NFL right now if it wasn't for the 49ers running him off.
I would assume that Jim Harbaugh is willing to go to any NFL or college team that is willing to pay him a lot of money and would give him an opportunity to win a title of some sort.
7. I think Steve Smith is this generation’s Michael Irvin. Smith, like Irvin, knows exactly how much hand-fighting contact with the corner he can get away with. That showed on Smith’s 34-yard touchdown catch against the Niners down the left sideline Sunday.
I think Steve Smith would not like being compared to anyone else besides Steve Smith. I also think Smith has been doing this for a while now and it's nice that once he's announced his retirement that it's finally getting noticed.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Story of the week: William Powell of St. Louis magazine on the life and heartbreaking loss of new St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman. Such a heart-tugging story about what happens to a good person when the love of his life dies unexpectedly.
Peter knows how Benjamin Hochman must feel. One time Peter's wife had a really bad cold for a week or so. The doctor didn't know when it was going to get better, but eventually it did. It was very concerning, so Peter knows how Hochman feels when telling his heartbreaking story.
c. RIP, Dean Chance, who died of a heart attack in his Ohio hometown last week. He was one of baseball’s truly feared pitchers of my youth.
Chance was the greatest pitcher of Peter's lifetime. And by "lifetime" Peter means "a two week period during the 1967 season."
g. Wow, Christian McCaffrey. Save some of that for the NFL, or for The Big Game.
Yeah, save some of that for the NFL when you are eligible to go to the NFL in a few years. Wouldn't waste all that great running on pointless college football games. Of course, if you blow your knee out before you get to the NFL then it's no big deal. Coming back from an ACL tear is really not that hard to do these days.
l. Michigan color man Dan Dierdorf (yes, that Dan Dierdorf)
I'm pretty sure even the most casual football fan could assume it was "that" Dan Dierdorf. Also, really do learn how to spell "Freddy Krueger" because that's still bothering me. Don't drop knowledge on your readers and ignore the knowledge you should be dropping on yourself.
o. Good camera work by NBC catching USC AD Pat Haden brought to a knee by illness on the sidelines at Notre Dame before the game.
Great camera work showing Pat Haden in the middle of a health scare. He probably realized he was going to have to hire another USC head football coach and he's lucky to still have a job at this point.
But really, maybe I'm being too sensitive to this, but Pat Haden collapses to the field and all Peter King has to say about it is to remark on the great camera work? No regard for Haden and the fact he just fucking collapsed?
q. It doesn’t bother me, but I know why it bothers the casual fan baseball is trying to lure.
Lure into grandma's cedar closet?
Time between pitches, seventh inning, Jays-Royals, Saturday, David Price pitching, 3-2 count on Salvador Perez: 93 seconds.
Much like there being a rule about taking out the shortstop or second baseman that MLB just doesn't care to enforce, this can be easily corrected by the umpires taking a break from believing they are the reason fans show up to the ballpark and deciding to enforce the current rules.
v. I would be in quicksand, communications-wise, without the Mophie.
w. That’s a phone-charger, for those unaware. Fantastic product.
In case you were wondering, this is Peter King saying something nice about a product in an effort to get free shit from the manufacturer of said product. Next week in MMQB Peter will be like, "I can't believe it, but the entire THE MMQB staff got a whole box of free Mophie's sent to us this past week. Thanks so much for this fantastic product!"
The Adieu Haiku
Panthers felt dissed. So
they went west. Spanked Seattle.
Much respect to Cam.
Here's something that isn't a haiku, but rhymes with Peter's.
Get rid of the Adieu Haiku and it won't be missed.
Stop writing it. Stop the battle.
Because really none of your readers give a damn.
I'm fucking poet. Make the Adieu Haiku go. Even Gregg Easterbrook, the king of pretentious shit, has stopped doing NFL season previews in haiku form.
Week 6, NFL, 2015. Memorable for the worst coaching decision since Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in the American League Championship Series about 16 batters too long in 2003.
It always comes back to the Red Sox in some way. Peter takes his writing cues from Bill Simmons.
And for two drives that will change the narrative on Cam Newton. Or should.
It won't, because the NFL is a week-to-week league. If Cam looks horrible next week then the narrative will then change back to what it was previously.
The Jets are 4-1, all the wins by double digits, and are better than anyone but Todd Bowles’ mother thought. Seattle is 2-4, can’t block anybody, and had another of its weekly late-game defensive meltdowns. Pittsburgh’s third-string quarterback, Landry Jones, beat a terrific defense, Arizona’s. The Broncos limped out of Cleveland, bordering on apologizing for an overtime win and being 6-0. In Green Bay, Philip Rivers threw for 503 yards and the Chargers lost; Eddie Lacy ran for three yards and the Packers won.
IT'S THE CRAZIEST NFL SEASON EVER! USUALLY THE NFL SEASON IS SO PREDICTABLE, BUT THIS YEAR IT IS NOT!
Soon, an unsatisfying explanation for the coaching play-call that took all the air out of Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday night, ruining the drama in the Revenge Bowl. And break up the Dolphins, give the Coach of the Year award to Dan Campbell, and take Miami’s defensive roster off the side of a milk carton.
Peter hates it when the drama is ruined. He loves drama! Drama makes writing MMQB so much easier.
First, though, the Panthers had never won in Seattle, and Cam Newton had never beaten Seattle, and it sure didn’t look like that was going to change with eight minutes left in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle up by nine Sunday. But Seattle’s not Seattle anymore.
Maybe Seattle is still Seattle, but it's just that they are the type of team who uses defense and timely offense to get victories. They keep the games closer (not intentionally of course), so there are times when they will end up on the losing side of close games. Ron Rivera was 2-14 in games decided by a touchdown or less at one point, but now that's starting to even out more. These things tend to even out over time.
And Cam Newton’s better than you think.
I'm not sure he's better than I think. I think he is exactly what I think he is.
Also, there are very few quotes from Newton in this MMQB. Nearly all the quotes come from Greg Olsen. I'm thinking the King-Newton beef hasn't been entirely squashed. Somebody may still be a bit immature about the whole "entertainer/icon" thing. Or maybe Peter didn't want quotes from Newton.
For quarterbacks, the important time of games is always late. Bill Walsh once said he wanted a quarterback whose heart rate would measure late in the fourth quarter what it measured in a Wednesday afternoon practice. That’s the way Cam Newton played Sunday, when it got very late in the funhouse of CenturyLink Field, and the locals thought their recent bad fortune was about to turn,
I have to snicker at the "bad fortune" comment since the NFL officials seemed to almost hand the Seahawks a victory (again) against the Lions a few weeks ago. I guess my definition of bad fortune is different from Peter's definition.
Drawing a line of demarcation at the 52-minute mark of the game shows what happened with Newton’s play at Seattle.
| Situation | Comp-Att | Yards | TD-INT | Rating | Led Panthers to... |
| First 52 minutes | 9-23 | 112 | 0-2 | 18.8 | 14 points |
| Last 8 minutes | 11-13 | 157 | 1-0 | 142.6 | 13 points |
Newton was awful in the beginning of the game. If you switch these numbers around then he would be bashed for struggling in the fourth quarter while his first three quarters were stellar. The narrative would then change.
Down 23-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Newton looked at his receiver group. Six pass-catchers would rotate in and out of the lineup on the last two drives, including three who had a total of 14 catches all seasons—
"All seasons..." Winter, Summer, Fall, and Spring. All seasons they only caught 14 passes.
Catches by Dickson and Funchess on the first drive put the ball at the Seattle 33, and then Newton hit Olsen, his favorite target, with a seam rout about 20 yards downfield, and it took two Seahawks to drag him down at the 1. Jonathan Stewart bulled in from a yard out, and Carolina was a touchdown away.
I'm shocked that Peter didn't mention the missed extra point by Graham Gano. The new extra point rule played a part in the outcome of the game and Peter didn't mention it. If Gano had hit the extra point, then the Panthers only would have had to hit a field goal, not score a touchdown, to win the game.
Now it was Carolina’s ball at the Seattle 26 with 37 seconds left. Down three. No timeouts left. Logic said take a shot or two downfield, then settle for the equalizing field goal and overtime.
Logic is stupid. Playing for overtime in Seattle is stupid. Win on this drive or go home.
First shot: sending Olsen up the seam, similar to what Newton had done on the previous drive.
Mike Shula running a similar play two drives in a row? I don't believe it.
And that was the call—though it almost cost Carolina five yards. “We were running out of time in the huddle because there was so much noise, and it was late coming in,” said Olsen. “Cam called it really fast,
Of course Cam can call it fast. He wants to be an entertainer and icon, so he's probably also good at rapping. That comes in handy in this situation.
An incredibly fortunate thing happened: Seattle’s secondary was playing two different coverages on the play because the call from the sidelines hadn’t reached all 11 players, and the noise was deafening; this is the one time when the crowd noise actually hurt the Seahawks.
The ball was perfectly thrown, hitting Olsen midway through the end zone. Accusatory fingers flew in the Seattle secondary, players pointing at each other. Like: I thought he was YOUR man!
Notice how it's usually coaching that causes the Seahawks to lose? The Panthers got a call in late through the noise, but the Seahawks (seemingly) got the call in on time and the defensive players didn't all have the same play call. Gregg Easterbrook is sure to mention this play this week, but along with the "run or pass?" call in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks seem to only lose because their coaches screw up.
Carolina took control of the NFC South with the win. The Panthers have a defense that makes it hard for foes to breathe. And they’ve got a quarterback who knows how to put some ugly series behind him, and play his best when the best is essential. The Carolina team that overcame Seattle in the fourth quarter is going to be a tough team to beat down the stretch.
That is, until the Panthers lose to the Eagles and Colts at home, at which point the narrative will be, "Can the Panthers score enough points to beat decent football teams?"
Observations after Patriots 34, Colts 27:
• It wasn’t that close.
• Reasonable people can disagree, but the fake-punt attempt by the Colts is the dumbest play-call I’ve seen in 31 years covering the NFL.
I don't understand it at all. I've seen some dumb play calls, but that was just a bizarre fake punt. It was like on Super Tecmo Bowl for SNES where if you move the nose tackle just enough up or down at the snap then you could dive and sack the quarterback before he drops back to pass. The alignment of the Colts players just seemed like the play was doomed to fail immediately.
When New England tries a zany-formation play, it works to perfection. When Indianapolis does, it looks like the team is coached by Jim Carrey.
Well, this is an interesting reference for the year 2015. Though, at least Jim Carrey knows "laces out" on a field goal attempt, so that has to mean something.
Sunday night, the Colts were down 27-21 with 16 minutes left, with a fourth-and-3 at their 37-yard line.
16 minutes left? Why not just write "1 minute from the end of the third quarter"?
Before the snap, nine Colts shifted wide right in a scrum, with safety Colt Anderson, for some reason, lining up under center. (The center, by the way, was wide receiver Griff Whalen. Whatever could go wrong? A wideout snapping to a safety, on the biggest play of the game?) The Patriots, confused initially, ended up with two players lining up over center, and three more nearby. At the snap, Anderson got plowed under, first by rushing/running back Brandon Bolden, as he tried to sneak, feebly, for the first down. Loss of one. Loss of hope.
I've defended Pagano and I would probably still take him over Ryan Grigson, if it came down to that, but this all comes down to coaching for me. One team was prepared and the other didn't seem to be.
Second disturbing thing: The decision by coach Chuck Pagano to install the play and to run it says to me that the Colts think they have only a ghost of a chance to win the game playing it straight. Maybe there’s good reason for that. After the Colts led 21-20 at the half, Indy opened the second half with these six possessions: punt, punt, fake-punt debacle, punt, punt, turnover on downs. The only way we’ve got a chance is to draw up lottery-ticket plays. Is that what the Colts think?
The Seahawks ran a flea-flicker against the Panthers that scored a touchdown. It doesn't mean they installed the play because they didn't believe they could beat the Panthers playing the game straight, they just thought it would be a play that worked. The same goes for the Colts. They drew up a fake-punt because they thought it would work and it doesn't reflect on them as desperate necessarily.
It’s one thing to try some pie-in-the-sky play like that with a minute left, a desperate play for desperate times. But with 16 minutes left? With one of the best punters in the league, Pat McAfee, having a chance to pin New England inside its 20? With the Patriots having punted on two previous series? Just not smart.
Contrarily, if the Colts were punting in this situation with 8 minutes left in the game then maybe the Patriots would look for a fake-punt. There's no reason to try a fake-punt here, so perhaps the element of surprise would help the play work. I'm sure that was some of the thinking behind the play call.
Pagano: “I take responsibility there. The whole idea there was, on a fourth-and-3 or less, shift to an alignment where you either catch them misaligned, they try to sub some people in, catch them with 12 men on the field. If you get a certain look, 3 yards, 2 yards, you can make a play. But again, we shifted over, and I didn't do a good enough job coaching it during the week. ... That's all on me.
Yeah, I still don't understand. So the play wasn't a fake-punt, but an elaborate attempt to get the Patriots to jump offsides?
There’s a third disturbing thing, as it turns out, about the fake punt: Punter Pat McAfee said they’d been working on the play since last year. Interesting: You’ve worked on a fake punt play since last year, and it’s an illegal formation, and there’s miscommunication, and it fails embarrassingly.
Is Peter using the right word when he says, "disturbing?" Are any of these things really "disturbing" in any way? It doesn't seem that way to me. Why is Peter constantly using the word "disturbing" in regards to a play call that didn't work? There are things that are disturbing and I don't think a bad play call in a football game is one of them.
If you’re owner Jim Irsay, and you already were reticent to give Pagano a lucrative extension last off-season, and you see your franchise look like the Keystone Cops in the game of the year, what kind of chance is there you’ll give the coach a bigger extension post-season?
What's the chance they can hire a better coach than Pagano? I'm just asking because I don't know.
Andrew Luck has to do more. He has to play better against the Patriots. If he’s a franchise quarterback, and I believe he surely is, franchise quarterbacks can’t go 0-5 against their biggest nemeses, completing 52.6 percent of one’s passes with more interceptions (10) than touchdowns (nine).
While I agree, Andrew Luck has done a lot to cover up many of the issues the Colts team has. Over four seasons he has covered up for a mediocre offensive line, running game and (I think) for a defense that probably isn't good enough. It's okay to go hard on Luck, but he's covered up for the Colts' weaknesses to even put them in a situation to play the Patriots in the playoffs.
Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era versus the AFC South: 19-2.
Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era versus all other teams: 20-19.
Meanwhile, the critics of the Patriots say they beat up on a crappy division and teams that play in a tough division (like the Bengals...traditionally at least) have to play a road playoff game because they lose games in their tough division. It's been this way for the Colts a lot over the years. It feels like quite a few years they had the division wrapped up with a couple games to go, followed by questions like, "Should the Colts rest Manning and their starters in the last couple of games?"
The Patriots had to walk out of Lucas Oil Stadium early this morning thinking: Not bad. We put up 34 points on a team with a better defense than we’ve seen in Indy in years, we didn’t even get Rob Gronkowski involved in the first half, we punted five times, we handed them seven points on an interception that bounced out of Julian Edelman’s hands into Mike Adams’ for a touchdown, and we couldn’t hear ourselves think for three quarters because the place sounded like Seattle.
But Seattle isn't Seattle anymore, remember?
Now it could get interesting for New England: In five days starting Sunday, the 5-1 Jets and possibly resurgent Dolphins come to Foxboro. A sweep of those games and the AFC East could be wrapped up by Halloween.
Not that Peter is reactionary, but the Dolphins win one game and they are "possibly resurgent."
John Elway played 256 games in his NFL career, and he threw 7,901 passes. He never was concerned about the inflation level of the football he threw. But after the Tom Brady scandal erupted earlier this year, he was curious. He went to his equipment staff, and had footballs inflated to 13 psi, and 12 psi, and 11 psi, and he felt them and tested them himself.
“I mean, it’s not that big a difference,” said Elway. “It’s hard to tell the difference. Not a big-enough difference to have the attention on this that it’s gotten.
Roger Goodell will suspend John Elway for four games because he's criticizing the attention the PSI of the Patriots footballs has gotten. It makes Goodell look bad, like this isn't a fight the league should be having, which is totally not true. This is a worthy fight for the NFL to be having and Elway's suspension is now a lifetime ban.
Of course, Elway isn’t alone in thinking the balls should be, within reason, left without regulation. But the fact is there are rules in the NFL, and the balls must be inflated between 11.5 psi and 12.5 psi when measured on gauges in the officials’ locker room two hours before the start of games. Until the rules are changed, if they ever are, quarterbacks will have to use footballs at that pressure.
And that is very, very true. Thems the rules, though I wonder if Goodell has heard the old adage "Pick your fights wisely." Is ball inflation really a big battle Goodell wants to have? Apparently so. The need to make it seem like he wasn't going easy on the Patriots was that great.
Remember last week in this space, when I asked interim Miami coach Dan Campbell if he had a message he wanted to deliver to Miami fans?
No Peter, no one but you can remember this. Thank God you are here to remind us of things our feeble minds can't wrap themselves around. Also, you are a shitty speller. Learn to use a search engine like Google so that you spell words like Krueger correctly.
We’re about to wake the sleeping giant,” Campbell said, with more than a touch of Vincent Price in his voice. (Or Freddy Kruger, for you youngsters.)
Yes, Freddy Kruger (it's actually "Krueger") for you "youngsters" that are 31 years old since "Nightmare on Elm Street" came out in 1984. 1984. That was three decades ago. I don't know if I would consider a 31 year old to be a youngster or not, but Freddy Krueger isn't exactly a current pop culture reference.
Owner Stephen Ross handed Campbell the game ball and said, “The sleeping giants have awoken.”
Then Stephen Ross called up Jim Harbaugh and offered him the head coaching job with the Dolphins.
Campbell—39, younger than Peyton Manning—accepted the game ball and said, with a touch of warning about keeping the pressure on foes for the next 11 games: “The sleeping giant is awake. But he can’t take a nap!”
Okay bro, even your bro Jay Glazer thinks this metaphor is played out now (much like me writing "bro" in relation to Dan Campbell). Let's throw some "Entourage" on and get ready to hit this new nightclub where the mixed drinks are especially flavorful and the straws are super-small for the maximum amount of bro-ness as we hit the dance floor when we hear some Pitbull come on.
Miami had six sacks (six times as many as they had in the previous four games combined), ran the ball better than it had all season, swarmed around Marcus Mariota menacingly and got a verbal salvo from Tennessee coach Ken Whisenhunt for—his feeling about defensive end Olivier Vernon—purposely trying to hurt Mariota.
Dan Campbell wants Ken Whisenhunt to just be cool. (Campbell holds his arms out like, "Come at me") If the Wiz wants to question how Campbell runs his team, that's cool, but just don't actually do it and call the Dolphins out. That's where trouble still starts, bro. (Dan Campbell starts removing his wife beater in preparation to fight)
When I thought was great about Campbell’s post-game talk to his team was that he recognized the practice-squad players and the backups whose job he has made it to give the starters a very tough week of practice. Campbell is like one of his longtime mentors, Bill Parcells:
I'm so tired of Peter King talking about Bill Parcells as the epitome of a coach who is hard on his players. Please stop. He was great, but please stop referencing him in this way. There are other NFL coaches who have been hard on his players.
You’d better practice, and practice hard and well, or you won’t be playing on Sunday.
This is as opposed to other NFL coaches who don't care if their players practice hard and well.
Miami played with such fervor Sunday, unlike they did for much of the season’s first four games under Joe Philbin. If you don’t play with consistent abandon under Campbell, he’s likely to yank you.
This is just like Bill Parcells used to coach. Is Dan Campbell as good of a coach as Bill Parcells was? It's too early to say, but it's no coincidence that Campbell hasn't lost an NFL game as a head coach yet. He's on his way to being better than Bill Parcells. He's a coach on the rise!
“We’re five or six games into the season,” said Wake. (They’re 2-3, actually.)
Math be hard.
Tennessee is not a good team right now, to be sure. So Miami might have won this game with anyone coaching. But Campbell’s influence showed up in the intensity of the play. Few teams will be more intriguing than Miami for the next couple of months.
I would venture to say there are only going to be about 31 other teams that are as intriguing as the Dolphins over the next couple of months.
Presented without comment.
Which means Peter will provide comment.
Well, with a little comment.
Obviously it would happen this way.
I thought: I bet I could make a pretty good team, maybe even a Pro Bowl team, of guys who’ve missed time due to injury in the first six weeks of the season. Then I thought: I bet I could make one of those teams in the NFC East alone.
And so I did.
And Peter King said, "Let's make it so."
What follows is a starting lineup of players in the NFC East who have missed time with injuries, or are on injured reserve or the physically-unable-to-perform list, with number of games missed in parentheses following the name.
| OFFENSE | DEFENSE |
| WR Dez Bryant, DAL (4) | DE Robert Ayers, NYG (4) |
| T Trent Williams, WAS (1) | DT Stephen Paea, WAS (1) |
| G Ronald Leary, DAL (2) | DT Markus Kuhn, NYG (3) |
| C Kory Lichtensteiger, WAS (1) | DE Randy Gregory, DAL (4) |
| G Shawn Lauvao, WAS (3) | LB Junior Galette, WAS (6, IR) |
| T Will Beatty, NYG (6, PUP) | LB Kiko Alonso, PHI (4) |
| TE Niles Paul, WAS (6, IR) | LB Mychal Kendricks, PHI (3) |
| WR Victor Cruz, NYG (6) | CB DeAngelo Hall, WAS (3) |
| WR DeSean Jackson, WAS (5) | SS Duke Ihenacho, WAS (5, IR) |
| QB Tony Romo, DAL (3) | FS Mykkele Thompson, NYG (6, IR) |
| RB DeMarco Murray, PHI (1) | CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, NYG (2) |
| Nickel Orlando Scandrick, DAL (5, IR) |
Except for Thompson, who was fighting for a job in training camp when he tore his Achilles, every one of the 22 other players is a solid starter, or, in the event of Scandrick, one of the best nickel corners in football.
Ronald Leary just got benched and a few of these guys only missed 1-2 football games. It's early in the season and that may be the sum total of what these guys miss. Not to mention, no one has a clue if Randy Gregory is a solid starter or not. He's a rookie, so how the hell does Peter know Gregory is a solid starter? Or is Peter just writing this in the hopes that his readers will just read what he's written and not question it?
“I think it was done with the idea of trying to hurt our quarterback and that’s bull---- football. I thought it was BS.”
—Tennessee coach Ken Whisenhunt, angry at Miami DE Olivier Vernon’s low hit on rookie Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, which left the quarterback with a slight limp the rest of the day.
Hey, be cool bro. Don't wake the sleeping giant when that sleeping giant wants to tear someone's ACL all up.
“Let’s go Mets! … I cannot believe I uttered those words.”
—Former Atlanta slugger Chipper Jones, a career nemesis to the Mets, on the Mets pre-game radio show on WOR Radio in New York on Thursday night.
This is an abomination and Chipper Jones should be embarrassed for himself.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Chris Boswell, kicker, Pittsburgh. Kicking in what has been the most difficult stadium in the league to make long field goals, Boswell continued to show the Steelers made the right decision in cutting the experienced Josh Scobee and signing the green Boswell last month. He was four-for-four in field goals Sunday—from 47, 48, 51 and 28 yards—as the Steelers surprised Arizona at Heinz Field.
The Cardinals didn't even know they were playing the Steelers on Sunday. The Steelers surprised Arizona at Heinz Field by showing up and requesting a football game be played. The fans were already there and the entire Cardinals team had shown up for a Sunday practice, so they figured they may as well play. I like to think the Steelers team popped up out of the middle of the field to dramatic music as a way of making their grand entrance and surprise the Cardinals.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Joe Marciano, special teams coach, Detroit. This is a team award, really, after a superbly executed fake punt with the Lions down seven with 5:38 left in the fourth quarter of a tight game against Chicago. Credit to long-snapper Don Muhlbach for making an odd snap in punt formation; instead of snapping all the way back to punter Sam Martin, Muhlbach snapped it six yards back at an angle to upback Isa Abdul-Quddus. Perfect snap. Abdul-Quddus sprinted around left end, got two good seal blocks, and ran 30 yards downfield, the key play on a field-goal drive. Perfect design and execution.
Is this what the Lions think? They can only beat the Bears by drawing up lottery ticket plays? This is very disturbing that the Lions think they have to make a desperate play at at desperate time to beat one of their NFC North rivals. Peter King thinks this is all very disturbing.
Six-game stats for the former and current New Orleans Saints starting tight ends:
| Player, Team | Targets | Rec. | Yards | Avg. | TD | 2015 Compensation |
| Jimmy Graham, Seattle | 40 | 29 | 344 | 11.8 | 2 | $8 million |
| Ben Watson, New Orleans | 33 | 25 | 266 | 10.6 | 2 | $1.5 million |
Except Graham has played about as badly as he ever has his career and he's still a better tight end than Ben Watson is right now. So if Peter's point is that Ben Watson isn't as good as Jimmy Graham, even when Graham is at his worst, then this is a job well done.
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Two things that probably shouldn't annoy me, but do:
1. Peter really, really, really needs to find a dictionary. A "factoid" is not "a small fact," it is a fact of questionable accuracy. So either Peter is writing, "Hey guys, I may be lying to you right now" or he just doesn't know the definition of a factoid.
2. There are two factoids here. So "Factoid" in the title needs to be plural. There are two factoids, not just one.
When NBC went to commercial break after the Colts’ bizarre fake-punt play that turned into a monumental failure Sunday night, the bumper music was “There Must Be Some Misunderstanding,” by Genesis.
The backstory: NBC’s lead audio technician, Wendel Stevens, makes a playlist for the Sunday night games. “There Must Be Some Misunderstanding” was not on the original playlist. After the botched fake punt, Stevens quickly found it and put it on the air.
This was a heads-up move by Stevens, but as the lead audio technician isn't this his job to call an audible and put music on that might better fit the situation during the game? I don't want to take away from the job he did, but I would imagine the audio technicians call an audible often during a game to different music being played than what was scheduled.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
On the last two days of US Airways’ existence—I have made it a point to only fly US Airways if every other airline is absolutely unavailable, because it has been a Double-A carrier, at best—I was scheduled to fly it on four segments, back and forth to Roanoke, as I was going to visit the Arizona Cardinals as they practiced last week at The Greenbrier Resort, which is in the middle of nowhere in southeastern West Virginia, about 105 miles from Roanoke.
It's West Virginia. Pretty much everything is in the middle of nowhere, unless you are located in the center of Charleston or Morgantown. Even once you leave those cities, then you are back in the middle of nowhere. If you don't feel a slight twinge of nerves about driving in West Virginia, while hoping your car doesn't break down as yet another mud-covered truck passes you, then you aren't doing West Virginia right.
The first segment was LaGuardia in New York to Philadelphia, Thursday at 6 a.m., connecting with a flight to Roanoke at 8:25. At about 5:40, there was an announcement that departure would be delayed by a mechanical issue. Delay. Delay. More delay. At 6:35, this announcement: “If you have a connection in Philadelphia, we’re not sure when this flight will leave, so you might want to visit our service desk and change your flight.” Went to service desk. Only option on US Air to get me to the Cardinals so I could see the coaches and players post-practice: fly to National Airport in northern Virginia at 7 a.m., rent a car, drive 246 miles to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. And so I did it.
Pain in the neck, but I did it.
I don't use the word "hero" very often and never take my use of it lightly. I have to think that Peter King driving 246 miles instead of flying that distance is being a true hero. Sometimes I think we lose sight as a society of what's important. Peter had a story to write and he was going to write that story, even if it meant not laying back on an airplane and catching some sleep. I bet Peter even took the time to fill the car up with gas so he wouldn't be charged an exorbitant amount of money for gas.
Next morning: Roanoke to Charlotte, Charlotte to LaGuardia. The tiny Charlotte puddle-jumper smelled like my late grandmother’s cedar closet, without the cedar.
What's Peter been doing in his late grandmother's cedar closet? Did he hang out there when he was younger? Was he banished there when he was bad or used the word "factoid" correctly? I'm very interested in Peter's late grandmother's cedar closet and why Peter was spending time in a stinky closet.
The Charlotte-to-Laguardia leg was only 65 minutes late.
I’m sure US Airways has some quality employees and good people. But I won’t miss it a bit.
And now that US Airways is gone, I am sure all air travel for Peter will be stress and hassle free. All flights will land on time and he'll never sit beside someone who takes their shoes off on a long flight.
Re: baseball's unwritten rules: There is only one, and I'm writing it now. If what you did pisses me off, you broke the rule. You're welcome
— Ray Ratto (@RattoCSN) October 15, 2015
I get the snark here, but this is how baseball players decide if one of the unwritten rules has been broken or not. If a player on the opposing team does something to piss off a group of players on one team, then an unwritten rule has been broken at that point. The Braves did not like how long Carlos Gomez circled the bases and yelled at one of the Braves players, so it's time for Brian McCann to stand up and not take it anymore. The Rangers don't like how long Jose Bautista admired one of his home runs, so it is time to hit him with a baseball the next time he is up to bat. It's snark, but it's true snark.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 6:
a. The return of Luke Kuechly. Led all tacklers with 13 at Seattle in a game that might be a change agent for the Carolina franchise.
Or it might not be a change agent. We'll see how things change when Carolina loses a few games. Narratives and stories change so much in the NFL, it's hard to just pronounce a franchise changed after a regular season victory.
d. Pierre Garcon undressing the best corner in football, Darrelle Revis, on a first-quarter touchdown pass. Revis, it appeared, feared Garcon on the fade and so let him come inside,
Did Revis let Garcon come inside to grandma's cedar closet? God knows what happens in there, but it smells very bad apparently.
i. Andy Dalton’s high-arcing rainbow deep downfield that Marvin Jones wrestled from two Bills. Just a beautiful throw, and a physically impressive catch by Jones.
This is what I mean about Andy Dalton and the story around him changing. If Marvin Jones doesn't come down with this catch, then it's same old Andy Dalton throwing a ball up for grabs and committing a turnover. Jones had to wrestle the ball from two Bills, so you can see how this would go badly for Dalton had Jones not come down with the ball.
q. The Ravens extending the contract of Marshal Yanda. Despite the debacle of the team's season, Yanda is the Ravens’ number two (behind Joe Flacco) cornerstone player.
All respect to Marshal Yanda, but when a football team's number two cornerstone player is a guard then I do have to wonder if that team has drafted well enough of late. I don't think Yanda is the number two cornerstone player for the Ravens anyway, but I don't think it's good news for an NFL team if their second cornerstone player is an offensive guard.
t. And Jerricho Cotchery’s invaluable third-down conversion catch, after a wrestling match with Seahawn corner DeShawn Shead, just before the TD catch heard ‘round the Carolinas.
Don't include South Carolina. They have been piggybacking on North Carolina for too long now and I'm tired of it. We give them Panthers training camp and call them the "Carolina" Panthers but we all know which state the team really belongs to.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 6:
f. Know where you are near the sideline, Dexter McCluster. Having a foot out of bounds late in the first half probably cost the Titans a field-goal try before halftime in a game in which points were scarce for Tennessee.
McCluster was probably scared of waking the sleeping giant or something if he got both feed in bounds on this catch. Dan Campbell would be pretty pissed if McCluster came down with this catch and the sleeping giant would get woken up even more.
j. Well, the Jarryd Hayne story was fun while it lasted. For the second time in the first six weeks of the season, Hayne fumbled a punt, and the 49ers are not good enough to hand away potential possessions once every three games because they like the former Australian Rugby League player’s potential. It’ll be interesting to see how coach Jim Tomsula handles the punt-return job going forward; Hayne stayed in the role after fumbling early against the Ravens. He also missed a blitz pick-up in the backfield.
It's almost like an athlete who hasn't played football at a high level for a very long time simply can't just walk on the field and have his talents in another sport translate to the NFL. It was a fun story for the NFL media to blow up as much as they could, but once Jarryd Hayne starts boring them by playing like someone who hasn't played much NFL football over his lifetime, they will get bored and move on to another story.
3. I think you’re blowing it, Johnny Manziel.
4. I think I’m empathetic with anyone who has a substance-abuse problem. But Manziel spent 87 days in a treatment center in the off-season.
This should all be under #3 in Peter's MMQB outline. It's the same topic, so why is he separating out the same discussion of Johnny Manziel and how he's ruining his football career into two different numbers on his outline?
5. I think if I were Jim Irsay, and I had become convinced I wasn’t going to sign Chuck Pagano long-term, I’d set up a very private meeting—maybe at a private home somewhere, or maybe at the Westin Detroit Airport,
Not to be too specific or anything like that of course. I'm surprised Peter didn't list the floor number and exact room that they should meet in.
somewhere both men could go without anyone thinking it odd—with Jim Harbaugh after the season. At the very least I’d use an intermediary to find out what Harbaugh’s price was, if he had one. Not that I’d expect Harbaugh to take the job.
Yes, one couldn't expect Jim Harbaugh to take the Indianapolis Colts job since he's shown through his career that he is so dedicated to staying with one team and it's not like he was run out of San Francisco or anything. So Harbaugh probably wouldn't want the head coach job with an NFL team he used to play for, with the quarterback who he coached in college, with the offensive coordinator who worked for him at Stanford or anything like that, especially since he probably would still be coaching in the NFL right now if it wasn't for the 49ers running him off.
I would assume that Jim Harbaugh is willing to go to any NFL or college team that is willing to pay him a lot of money and would give him an opportunity to win a title of some sort.
7. I think Steve Smith is this generation’s Michael Irvin. Smith, like Irvin, knows exactly how much hand-fighting contact with the corner he can get away with. That showed on Smith’s 34-yard touchdown catch against the Niners down the left sideline Sunday.
I think Steve Smith would not like being compared to anyone else besides Steve Smith. I also think Smith has been doing this for a while now and it's nice that once he's announced his retirement that it's finally getting noticed.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Story of the week: William Powell of St. Louis magazine on the life and heartbreaking loss of new St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman. Such a heart-tugging story about what happens to a good person when the love of his life dies unexpectedly.
Peter knows how Benjamin Hochman must feel. One time Peter's wife had a really bad cold for a week or so. The doctor didn't know when it was going to get better, but eventually it did. It was very concerning, so Peter knows how Hochman feels when telling his heartbreaking story.
c. RIP, Dean Chance, who died of a heart attack in his Ohio hometown last week. He was one of baseball’s truly feared pitchers of my youth.
Chance was the greatest pitcher of Peter's lifetime. And by "lifetime" Peter means "a two week period during the 1967 season."
g. Wow, Christian McCaffrey. Save some of that for the NFL, or for The Big Game.
Yeah, save some of that for the NFL when you are eligible to go to the NFL in a few years. Wouldn't waste all that great running on pointless college football games. Of course, if you blow your knee out before you get to the NFL then it's no big deal. Coming back from an ACL tear is really not that hard to do these days.
l. Michigan color man Dan Dierdorf (yes, that Dan Dierdorf)
I'm pretty sure even the most casual football fan could assume it was "that" Dan Dierdorf. Also, really do learn how to spell "Freddy Krueger" because that's still bothering me. Don't drop knowledge on your readers and ignore the knowledge you should be dropping on yourself.
o. Good camera work by NBC catching USC AD Pat Haden brought to a knee by illness on the sidelines at Notre Dame before the game.
Great camera work showing Pat Haden in the middle of a health scare. He probably realized he was going to have to hire another USC head football coach and he's lucky to still have a job at this point.
But really, maybe I'm being too sensitive to this, but Pat Haden collapses to the field and all Peter King has to say about it is to remark on the great camera work? No regard for Haden and the fact he just fucking collapsed?
q. It doesn’t bother me, but I know why it bothers the casual fan baseball is trying to lure.
Lure into grandma's cedar closet?
Time between pitches, seventh inning, Jays-Royals, Saturday, David Price pitching, 3-2 count on Salvador Perez: 93 seconds.
Much like there being a rule about taking out the shortstop or second baseman that MLB just doesn't care to enforce, this can be easily corrected by the umpires taking a break from believing they are the reason fans show up to the ballpark and deciding to enforce the current rules.
v. I would be in quicksand, communications-wise, without the Mophie.
w. That’s a phone-charger, for those unaware. Fantastic product.
In case you were wondering, this is Peter King saying something nice about a product in an effort to get free shit from the manufacturer of said product. Next week in MMQB Peter will be like, "I can't believe it, but the entire THE MMQB staff got a whole box of free Mophie's sent to us this past week. Thanks so much for this fantastic product!"
The Adieu Haiku
Panthers felt dissed. So
they went west. Spanked Seattle.
Much respect to Cam.
Here's something that isn't a haiku, but rhymes with Peter's.
Get rid of the Adieu Haiku and it won't be missed.
Stop writing it. Stop the battle.
Because really none of your readers give a damn.
I'm fucking poet. Make the Adieu Haiku go. Even Gregg Easterbrook, the king of pretentious shit, has stopped doing NFL season previews in haiku form.
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