Tag: sports

Jared Allen is a monster!

The Vikings season may be over, but they’re not quitting. Allen has three sacks already and there’s still four minutes left in the third quarter… he only needs one more to break Strahan’s Favre-assisted NFL record. And Dan Marino could take some lessons from Chris Doleman, the former Vikings record-holder. I always liked Doleman back in his day and he looked downright delighted to see Allen bringing down McCoy.

VPFL Championship

92 Moundsview Meerkats
22 Greenfield Grizzlies

90 Bailout Banksters
74 Green Reverends

I don’t think anyone would disagree that the two best teams are meeting in the championship game this upcoming weekend. The question is, will the Piranha of the Serengeti finally claim their first fantasy title or is it still good to be a bankster, even in the face of the Eurocrisis. Interestingly enough, the Projected Matchup has both teams scoring an estimated 71 points next week. It could all come down to whether Brady throws touchdowns to Gronkowski or Hernandez.

VPFL Week 14

Final Regular Season Standings

Bailout Banksters 9-4-1 1000 854

Greenfield Grizzlies 9-5-0 1045 930

Moundsview Meerkats 9-5-0 1009 877

Green Reverends 7-6-1 923 935

RR Redbeards 7-6-1 920 927

Macau Marauders 6-7-1 895 998

MS Swamp Spartans 6-8-0 933 951

Bane Sidhe 6-8-0 923 991

Cranberry Rhyneauxs 5-9-0 973 1040

GroverBeach Quixotes 4-10-0 804 922
111 Bailout Banksters
84 Moundsview Meerkats

71 Greenfield Grizzlies
63 Bane Sidhe

90 RR Redbeards
84 MS Swamp Spartans

62 Green Reverends
60 GroverBeach Quixotes

87 Macau Marauders
85 Cranberry Rhyneauxs

Thanks to everyone for playing this year. The Banksters made a strong late season run with a three-game winning streak that claimed the regular season title, while Nate made an equally strong run that just fell short of the playoffs thanks to Green holding off the last-place Quixotes by only two points.

In the first round, the Banksters look to make it to the championship game with a 40-point performance from their Falcons giving them a Thursday-night lead over the Reverends. The other game features a classic old school showdown between the Meerkats and the Grizzlies.

Tebow goes viral

Sports Illustrated correctly notes a new aspect to the phenomenon:

Before, when Tebow pulled rabbit after rabbit out of his hat, it was easy enough to chalk it up to Denver’s new quarterback giving the entire team a jolt — more confidence that, no matter what, the game was never out of reach. That’s all still true, but the reason this Broncos run has continued goes beyond that.

What’s happening now is that opposing teams are starting to buy in, too. No one will ever admit to it, of course, but Tebow is in the league’s head.

I noticed this last night too. The faces of the Bears players, and especially their coaches, showed something between concern and outright fear during the fourth quarter. What Tebow has done is transformed the Broncos into something like the NFL version of the Terminator; they simply will not give up even when the game is obviously over.

Consider Marion Barber. He isn’t a stupid player or a bad one. The one thing he is known for is his hard running and he even made a great catch in overtime. The mistake he made at the end of regulation time when he didn’t go down soon enough and was forced out of bounds wasn’t indicative of stupidity, but desperation. The only way to be absolutely sure of victory was to get the first down, and so he foolishly decided to go for it.

And the way the Broncos defense was swarming to the ball and attacking even in overtime when the Bears were in field goal range is simply not normal. In most cases, a team in that position gives up and allows the running back or receiver go for the score. Those who try to distinguish between Tebow and the Denver defense are completely missing the point. A great quarterback will lead an offense. A great inspirational leader will inspire the entire team.

I remember when a mediocre team had a truly dreadful quarterback situation. The Baltimore Ravens didn’t score an offensive touchdown for FIVE STRAIGHT GAMES, but still managed to win two of them on the strength of their epic defense. When asked to make a distinction between their great defense and awful offense, Ray Lewis refused. They were one team, he explained, and if the offense couldn’t manage to get it done for one reason or another, all that meant was that the defense would simply have to step up its game.

And behind the inspirational leadership provided by Lewis and the powerful team spirit forged by that month of adversity, the Ravens didn’t merely win the Super Bowl, they smashed their way through the AFC playoffs by forcing other teams to quit. I remember seeing Eddie George almost cringing in front of Lewis and receivers pulling up their slants rather than go over the middle. NFL football requires such an intense effort that a mentally defeated team will find it difficult to beat even an inferior opponent.

That’s why Tebow and the Broncos outperform in the 4th quarter. It’s no longer that they don’t stop giving 100 percent, it’s that the other team knows they won’t stop giving 100 percent. What gives Tebow his uncanny ability to win isn’t his belief in God, his belief that God wants him to win (which he doesn’t actually believe anyhow), or even his teammates’ belief in him. What gives Tebow his uncanny ability to win is his unusual ability to maintain hope, even in the face of certain failure.

Peter King spoke with Denver’s kicker: The 51-yard winner looked like it was a Tiger Woods tee shot on a par-5 hole. It almost drilled a hole through the net behind the goalpost.

“You know what’s fun about this?” said Prater. “Everyone keeps saying what Tim can’t do. And he goes out every week and we win. We love the guy. He’s so real. Now we just feel like anything’s possible.”

Of course, Tebow isn’t the only quarterback whose deeds are looking divinely inspired this season. He may be less outspoken, and his religious beliefs are much less discussed, but Aaron Rodgers is also an evangelical Christian. Tom Brady, on the other hand, quite clearly sold his soul to the Devil, aka Bill Belichick, some years ago.

VPFL Week 13

62 Moundsview Meerkats (9-4-0)
52 Bane Sidhe (6-7-0)

82 Bailout Banksters (8-4-1)
62 GroverBeach Quixotes (5-7-1)

64 Greenfield Grizzlies (8-5-0)
52 MS Swamp Spartans (6-7-0)

84 RR Redbeards (6-6-1)
62 Macau Marauders (5-7-1)

101 Cranberry Rhyneauxs (5-8-0)
84 Green Reverends (6-6-1)

The playoff picture has clarified. Moundsview, Bailout, and Greenfield are all in, with four teams, including the Chris Johnson-revived Redbeards, all battling it out for the last spot. Could it finally be the Meerkats year? They’re off to a big start with Antonio Brown’s Thursday night performance.

Why I don’t watch NCAA football

It’s just a joke. A complete farce. I’m glad I quit paying attention to it years ago. The idea that Alabama, which has already lost to LSU, should play LSU again for the nonexistent “national title” is simply ridiculous in every way.

What they’re playing for is the SEC title, not the national one, the recent SEC championship game notwithstanding. How many teams outside the SEC have both teams even played? Six! LSU played Oregon, Northwestern State (?), and West Virginia. Alabama played Kent State, Penn State, and North Texas. A real murderer’s row of competitors there. While the SEC is the premier conference in college football, the more salient point here is that neither team has played a single Big 12 team; LSU hasn’t played the Big 10, Alabama hasn’t played the Pac-12.

Who cares if LSU beats Alabama again? We already know they can and probably will. And it’s worse if Alabama upsets LSU, since people will always wonder if Oklahoma State could have beaten them as well. I used to follow college football, but began to lose interest in college football once the focus shifted away from the inter-conference rivalries and towards a mythical “national” championship. I haven’t paid any attention to it in years, and latest debacle confirms my opinion that the NCAA is corrupt and stupid, the BCS is a ridiculous farce, and I’d rather much rather review advanced NFL statistics at Football Outsiders than devote any time to NCAA football.

If I ran the BCS, I would have instituted a simple rule preventing any such travesties. No intra-conference rematches if there is a potential opponent with a similar or better record, regardless of the BCS rating. When one is attempting to determine a national title, there should always be a heavy bias towards matching up teams from difference conferences. Of course, an NFL-style playoff system where the top teams from the six major conferences, plus two wild cards, make the playoffs makes far too much sense for the NCAA to ever adopt it.

VPFL Week 12

58 Moundsview Meerkats (8-4-0)
55 MS Swamp Spartans (6-6-0)

79 RR Redbeards (5-6-1)
76 Greenfield Grizzlies (7-5-0)

81 Bane Sidhe (6-6-0)
63 GroverBeach Quixotes (4-8-0)

84 Bailout Banksters (7-4-1)
30 Cranberry Rhyneauxs (4-8-0)

67 Macau Marauders (5-6-1)
56 Green Reverends (6-5-1)

Mailvox: an easy choice

Jamsco asked me to consider presenting an argument for supporting Tebow and the Broncos versus an argument for supporting the Vikings. I rejected that because there is absolutely no chance I would ever support any team against the Vikings. I find The Miracle of Tebow to be even more entertaining than the Tarvaris Jackson Experiment, and I wish the young man well in general, but against the Vikings?

Never. The only circumstance in which I might consider supporting another team against the Vikings is if one of my children was playing against them. And even then, I’d probably hope for an excellent individual performance in defeat.

However, I can say that seeing the Vikings lose to Tebow and the Broncos on Sunday would be less painful than most historical Vikings defeats. I rank Vikings defeats on the following 10-point pain scale:

10- Dallas Hail-Mary game. Pearson absolutely committed offensive pass interference.
9 – Oakland. Super Bowl XI.
8 – Atlanta. 38 in 98. This was dreadful, but unlike the other two games, I didn’t actually cry. One of the guys at the bar in Florida did, however.
7 – New Orleans. NFC Championship aka The Greased Pig Game. This probably would have been an 8 if I was younger and was still capable of feeling normal human emotion. Also, New York 41-0. People tend to forget the Vikes were actually favored. Total disaster from the get-go.
6 – New England. The 28-27 game. How do you lose when you’re winning 27-0? Pittsburgh. Super Bowl IX. I didn’t expect the Vikings to win, but I still hoped. Washington. The Darren Nelson drop in the 1987 NFC championship. We would have crushed Denver too.
5 – Any loss to the Packers when the Vikings are favored. And pretty much any loss to the Lions. Not that the Lions are a rival, it’s just that it’s so unexpected.
4 – Arizona. 18-17 in 2003 to knock the Vikings out of the playoffs. Or any playoff loss in a year when the Vikes clearly aren’t good enough to compete.
3 – Any loss to the Packers when the Packers are the better team. Losing then isn’t surprising, it’s just annoying. As are the Packer fans. Or losing after leading by 10 or more in the third quarter. Or any loss in the second half of the season after starting 6-2 or better.
2 – A regular season loss.
1 – A preseason loss.

I would say that a loss to the Broncos would probably be about a 1.5, not because I’m cheering for Tebow, but because the season is shot anyhow and I’d just as soon see Frazier go. I see no reason to have any confidence in him. The Vikings run defense isn’t as epic as it was a few years ago, but it is still a top-10 run defense giving up only 99.6 YPG, which should slow down the top-ranked Denver running attack. The Vikings should win, even without Adrian Peterson, since their weak and wounded pass defense, (missing both starting corners and ranked 29th), should be capable of rising to the challenge posed by Tebow’s arm, and because the Denver defense simply isn’t as good as many casual observers imagine.

By the way, I always support the NFC North team in the playoffs. Bears, then Packers. I hate the NFC West. I don’t hate the NFC East, but I hate the way the media spends half their coverage on the NFC East and the other half on the rest of the league. And the NFC South still strikes me as a nonentity, the Saints one Super Bowl notwithstanding.

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s game. You can always judge a player better when you see him play against a team you know well. I do wish Winfield wasn’t on IR; it would be fascinating to see if Denver could run his way or not… I’m betting not, but we won’t be able to find out.

Is the Denver D holding back Tebow?

It astonishes me that it is necessary to walk the doubters through this, but Denver is not winning because it has a great defense. Nor can it be honestly said that Denver’s offense is terrible because Tim Tebow is the starting quarterback. Consider the following facts:

Denver DEF

Points per game: 23.6 (22nd)
Rush yds per game: 120.5 (19th)
Pass yds per game: 234.7 (17th)
Interceptions: 7 (26th)
Fumbles Recovered: 6 (14th)
Sacks: 30 (7th)

Denver OFF

Points per game: 20.1 (21st)
Rush yds per game: 159.7 (1st)
Pass yds per game: 153.1 (31st)
Interceptions: 1 (1st)
Fumbles Lost: 9 (27th)
Sacks given: 16 (10th)

(Note that the NFL ranks sacks given and interceptions by QB rather than by team: Tebow has thrown one while Orton threw eight.)

The astonishing thing isn’t that Denver doesn’t have the league’s best defense, but that it doesn’t even have the league’s worst PASSING offense. What is often overlooked in assessing the Broncos is that in addition to saddling Denver with a low-risk, low-performance passing game, Tebow also provides his team with an EXCELLENT running game. Jacksonville has a much better defense than Denver and an even worse passing game; the primary difference is that Denver gains 40 more rushing yards per game and throws one less interception than the Jaguars. The NFL being a game of inches, that is the difference between 5-1 and 1-5. And given that Tebow rushes for 50.6 yards per game without losing any fumbles and throwing only 0.15 INT per game, it should be fairly obvious that in the case of Denver, the difference is #15.

If Denver’s defense was genuinely as good as everyone keeps saying it is, the Broncos would be the favorites to not only win the AFC West, but would probably have the AFC’s best shot at beating the Packers in the Super Bowl. (Ironically, in light of Tebow’s connection to the First Coast, he would likely have the Jaguars winning the AFC South and playing for home field advantage right now if he was playing with MoJo Drew and the league’s fifth-rated defense instead of a Ravens reject and the league’s 22nd-rated defense.) Tebow isn’t proving a team can win in the NFL with an excellent defense and a caretaker quarterback who doesn’t turn the ball over, that was Trent Dilfer and the 2000 Ravens. He is proving instead that a team can win in the NFL with an average defense, a low-risk, low-performance passing game, and the best running game in the league.