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Just for our own Notre Dame homer, Jordan Lauterbach, we bring to you the most awesome dive since grunge bands were diving off stages in the early 90’s. Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate gets some serious air jumping into the Michigan State band. Oh, yea, there might be some awesome music added for dramatic effect. 
This is a little late, but no less significant…. From ESPN:
Crap. I don’t normally use that type of coarse language in my writing, but this story deserves it. The issue goes beyond the obvious effects of loosing a player like Michael Floyd for the season. That alone is reason for concern. But it also changes the entire complexion of the offense. Now teams can get away with double covering Golden Tate. As good as Tate is, I’m obviously concerned about this. Last season, Floyd missed the final three games of the season. Tate averaged 17 yards a catch in the nine games that Floyd played and only 9 yards a catch in the three that he missed. Those numbers are skewed when you consider that Tate was held catch less in Floyd’s first game out (11/15 vs Navy) and exploded for 7/146 against Syracuse. Not exactly the balance we were used to. Tate also failed to record a touchdown in two of those three games. More importantly, The Irish lost two of the three games that Floyd missed. The win came against Navy…by six. So yeah, loosing Michael Floyd is really bad. It may just be the difference between the BCS and a three or four loss trip to a made-for-tv bowl. That would be the end of Charlie Weis. But Charlie Weis apparently has some ideas. Before Michael Floyd broke the freshman receiving record, Duval Kamara owned it. Kamara is still on the team. His has four catches for 29 yards this season. I don’t expect Kamara to resurrect his freshman production, but would it be too much to ask to become more of a presence in the offense? Also look for Robert Paris and Shquille Evans to get more looks. Parris, a senior, has four catches for 26 yards and a touchdown this season. Evans is only a freshman and has two grabs this season. Back on national signing day, I mused about the possibility of a “Clausen-to Shaq!” touchdown call. But I never wanted it to become a reality under these circumstances. As for Clausen, I get the sense that he will play. This guy is tough as nails. Remember his freshman year? He hit the dirt more times then anyone should and continued to get up. Even Saturday was impressive, 300 yards passing and two touchdowns after getting banged up in the first quarter. My concerns about Clausen are minimal. We also now get to see what kind of quarterback Clausen is without Michael Floyd to throw to. He had 2 touchdowns and four picks in the three games that Floyd missed last year. The touchdowns both came against Syracuse. If that happens again, the team will struggle for six wins. But I don’t think it will. Clausen is a much better player than he was in 2008. Case in point, he had six interceptions after three games last year. He doesn’t have any this season.  Tags: bone, Charlie, charlie weis, clausen, collar, collar bone, college, college football, Evans, Floyd, football, injury, irish, jimmy, jimmy clausen, jordan, jordan lauterbach, Lauterbach, michael, michael floyd, navy, paris, robert, Saturday, Shaq, shaquille, shaquille evans, surgery, weis, Categories: NCAAF Leave a comment There are two quarterbacks in the NFL that I truly feel are so overrated that it makes me sick. One is Ben Roethlisberger. When I listen to people use his name in the same breath as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady it makes me want to kill anything within arms reach. He holds the ball too long and routinely puts up pedestrian efforts with one good play in it, and everyone loves him in the morning. The other is Tony Romo. I’m a strong believer in TD-INT ratio as an incredibly important stat. I know that it’s flawed, but the truth is that it’s the best that we’ve got. The passer rating is far too dependent on yardage than can be gained after the catch. I am a fan of completion percentages, but how often have we seen a quarterback gave a high completion percentage but still lose because he couldn’t get in the end zone? A whole bunch.
What we get with TD-INT ratio is a measure of the best play that a QB can make against the worst play he can make. If anything, the INTs are far more important than the TDs. Interceptions kill drives and lose games, while a touchdown pass can be a screen that the receiver takes the distance. I’d rather have a quarterback who doesn’t throw many touchdowns, but doesn’t turn the ball over. And we come full circle to Tony Romo. Last night, we watched him throw away a game that the Giants should have lost. The Cowboys defense took away a lot of what the Giants wanted to the do on the offense and gave their quarterback every chance to win the game. Instead, he threw four interceptions and cost his team a the football game that could have launched them to a successful season. Romo’s downfall is the same one that has haunted Brett Favre and the one that will keep Jay Cutler from ever becoming one of the games elite. I’m not sure if it’s that they don’t read coverage well, of if it’s that they just have too much faith in their arm to magically teleport the ball into the receiver’s arm, but they all just make too many dumb decisions that lead to picks. So, where does that put Romo in the NFL’s quarterback hierarchy? It doesn’t mean that he is a bad quarterback, it means that he is just not as good as a lot of people who look at his gaudy yardage totals would lead you to beleive. Instead of being in the top five, he is instead somewhere around ten-to-twelve. And for those you are curious, let’s put my little list up for all to view:
Be aware that this list changes almost day to day. I’m sure that you are probably screaming at your computer at this point because I just said that Trent Edwards is a better quarterback than Romo. Well, he is. Look at their stats and pay particular notice to the interception numbers. You tell me if you would rather have roughly six interceptions per season or 15? Yea, Edwards is better. Last night, on a national stage that was supposed to Jerry Jones’ crowning moment, his quarterback cost him a victory that I’m sure he believed was birthright. That stadium that NBC insisted upon comparing to the Roman Colosseum (if anyone is visiting this Stadium in 3019, I’ll roll over in my grave) opened with a loss because of Tony Romo. Tags: Aaron Rodgers, anyone, anything, arm, ATL, believer, ben roethlisberger, birthright, breath, Brett, BUF, bunch, catch, chance, CHI, circle, Colosseum, completion, computer, cost, coverage, DAL, day, defense, distance, downfall, Drew Brees, ebcause, elite, end, everyone, faith, fan, Favre, football, game, gaudy, Giants, hierarchy, IND, interception, Interceptions, INTs, Jay Cutler, Jerry Jones, list, loss, lot, Make, matt ryan, measure, moment, morning, name, NBC, NFL, night, notice, NYG, offense, pass, passer, percentage, Peyton Manning, Phillip Rivers, PIT, play, point, quarterback, Rating, ratio, Roman, screen, season, stadium, stage, stat, TD-INT, TDs, team, teleport, tom brady, tony romo, touchdown, Trent Edwards, truth, victory, yardage, Yea, zone, Categories: NFL 9 comments - be the next! Don’t ask me why it isn’t called his walkout shirt, because he did wear it to the ring. However, regardless of what it’s called, it is one of the simpler shirts in MMA.  Personally, I’m excited about what’s next for Vitor. Dana seems to want to fast track him into a fight with Anderson Silva. While I still think that the Spider has the best shot of winning that fight, we saw what Vitor’s hands can due to a fighter that makes a mistake. If Silva starts to get goofy in that fight, than Vitor can make him pay and end the fight very quickly. Check out MMA Warehouse to get the shirt for 26.99. My lengthy comedic take on Week 2 is coming later on but here’s some interesting things I learned watching the games and reading the game-book. - Matt Ryan continues to dominate. 21/27 for 220 Yards 3 TD’s and 1 INT’s. - Michael Turners line: 28 carries for 105 Yards. He continues to be a workhorse but, at home two weeks in a row, the yards per carry, 3.8, isn’t something you want to see. - Tony Gonzalez was targeted 7 times. Tony Gonzalez had 7 catches. What an addition he was. - For the Panthers it’s hard to really single out any particular reason they lost. The time of possession battle was near even. The Panthers ran the ball effectively, Delhome played reasonably well and they didn’t get called for an excessive amount of penalties. So what did go wrong? Well Delhome still turned the ball over once, they fumbled twice, losing one, and when you don’t create many turnovers it makes that all much more significant. Many will put the blame on Delhome but you can’t let an opposing QB complete 78% of his passes, not sack him at all and expect to win. Vikings 27/Lions 13 - See Ryan, Matt. Brett Farve was 23/27 for 155 Yards and 0 INTS. You just can’t win games letting any QB be that accurate. - Matt Stafford continues to look like a rookie. 18/30 for 152 Yards 1 TD 2 INTS. Those numbers aren’t what surprised me. What did were the target numbers: Calvin Johnson 7 Targets Just doesn’t make sense. Calvin caught five passes and was targeted only targeted seven times! It’s not like the Vikings are known for there pass D. Scott Linehan and Co. need to do a better job getting the ball to Calvin. Be creative, run screens, end-arounds whatever. Your only hurting yourself by not letting your play maker attempt to make plays. - Also a week after I bashed Coles for his drop filled game he was only targeted 3 times. By comparison Chris Henry was also targeted 3 times and Andre Caldwell 2. Ocho-Cinco lead the way with 7 targets. - The Bengals Defense continues to be underrated. They did what the Packers couldn’t racking up 6 sacks and forcing 2 fumbles. For those scoring at home Antwan Odom has 5 sacks on his own. - Define Shutdown; Greg Jennings 5 targets 0 receptions. - Only getting 2 sacks isn’t good enough for the Packers D, the Bengals Achilles Heel is their O-Line. It also isn’t very good when you let a team complete 64% of their 3rd downs and have a 100% Red Zone TD efficiency. Yikes. Cardinals 31/Jaguars 17 - So the Cardinals lay an egg at home Week 1 and Warner gets banged up. What happens next? They go across country, play at 1 P.M. and dominate. - As solid as Hightower was Chris Wells is bound to be more involved in the offense as the weeks go on. 7 for 44 to the tune of 6.3 a carry for Beanie Man. - Speaking of Hightower last weeks passing numbers were a fluke, let’s put that to rest. 3 targets for Timmy this week. - The target report continues to prove the notion that Fitzgerald always puts his best numbers when Boldin isn’t in the lineup. Fitz had 5 targets this week the same number as Steve Breaston. Boldin meanwhile had 9. - What went wrong for the Jags? In a word; everything. - The blocked field goal and subsequent return-TD allowed the Cards to get up early, 17-3, instead of what would have been 10-6. - After that the wheels seemed to come off for the Jags. Despite running the ball well they abandoned their strength and Mo-Jo finished with only 16 carries. - Garrad was sacked 4 times and fumbled 3. Troy Williamson also fumbled for good measure. - Ironically the Cards only completed 2 of 9 3rd downs and lost the time of possession battle (albeit a slight difference.) I worry about the Jags falling apart all together. Raiders 13/Chiefs 10 - Apparently you can win when your QB is inaccurate also. JaMarcus Russel was 7/24 for 109 Yards. Not a good start to the season for the former number one pick. - Wasn’t exactly inspired by Bush (3.9/Carry) or McFadden (2.9/Carry) either. How did the Raiders win this game again? - How in gods name did the Chiefs lose this game? They out gained the Raiders in net yards 409 to 166, held the Raiders to only 11 first downs as well as forcing them off the field (3/13) on 3rd down. The Chiefs also won the time of possession battle in fact holding the ball for nearly twice as long the Raiders. Just a comical loss for the Chiefs. - Not taking anything away from the Jets but the Pats really missed Wes Welker. Knockoff Weleker, Edelman was targeted 16 times and only had 8 catches. - Speaking of target numbers Joey Galloway was second on the team with 12 targets (5 catches) Moss had 8 targets and only 4 catches. Ben Watson only got 4 targets and had 3 catches. After the success he found against Buffalo it’s surprising he wasn’t used more. - Darelle Revis is awesome. Andre Johnson and Randy Moss down, next victim Justin Gage! - Brady dropped back 47 times and was nearly killed on every play. Meanwhile Fred Taylor only had 8 carries and racked up 46 yards. The Pats only ran 20 times as a team despite having success on the ground. All in the play calling looks pretty shoddy. Starting to think the Pats really might miss Josh McDaniels. Tags: bens, Brandon Pettigrew, brett farve, calvin johnson, Cedric Benson, d scott, game book, interesting things, INTs, matt ryan, Packers, Panthers, scott linehan, seven times, stinker, target numbers, tony gonzalez, turners, vikings, workhorse, Categories: NFL Leave a comment Each Week, I’ll be breaking down the performance of the Giants many wide receivers. Here’s hoping this column does go on for too long and the Giants find a starting duo before too long. My god. What a win. I can’t believe that after all those losses on defense and the terrible performance by the front seven that was out there (because they were super gassed) that the Giants had enough to pull this thing off. A lot of credit will go to the wide receivers, but before anyone anoints the Giants a passing team, remember that the Cowboys played NINE in the box most of the games. Don’t get too worried about the running game until after next week. On with the grades:
Tags: anyone, Barden, box, card, column, coverage, credit, D'arcy Johnson, defense, Domenik, Don, duo, Eli, fact, Field, game, Giants, god, grade, Hagan, Hakeem Nicks, hell, Hixon, knee, left, load, lot, Manning, Mario Manningham, Moss, NFL, NINE, number, pass, Performance, play, point, quarter, quarterback, Ramses, reference, report, rook, route, Sinorice, Steve Smith, surprise, target, team, thing, threat, tonight, track, Vaseline, way, weapon, week, win, Categories: NFL 2 comments - be the next! |
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September 21, 2009, at 9:30 pm
