Wednesday, September 26, 2012

And hilarity ensues

Or as it's otherwise known, the Green Bay Packers losing to the Seahawks.
 
There's been a lot of back and forth about this. From what I can tell of the final play of the Packers/Seahawks game, Golden Tate committed an interference penalty, three Packers defenders committed penalties on a Seahawks receiver whose name I couldn't see, and ultimately Tate and Jennings came down with simultaneous possession. So the refs got it about right.
 
Since then I've been provided with plenty of entertainment. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Engage "rant mode"

So I have to rant about the officiating of the Sunday Night game this week. But I'm not going to be ranting about the same things that I imagine everyone else is. I'm ranting the opposite way; in favour of the replacement officials. Although this post was spurred by the Sunday Night game, it applies to the general arguments being levelled at the replacement officials this season.
 
- First off, yes, the replacement officials have made some bad calls, but....
 
- I'm sick and fucking tired of listening to people talk about the officiating as if the regular crews were flawless and never made any mistakes. People are talking about these mistakes as if they've never seen a ref miss a call or make a bad call in a football game before. What planet have people been living on if that's the case? The fact is the regular officials make just as many mistakes, if not more. Go back and watch some of last seasons games. People were forever complaining about the quality of officiating, as they have done for years. And yet all of sudden pundits seem to have suffered a collective memory loss, because everyone now seems to think that the regular refs were superb officials who never put a foot wrong.
 
- This is not helped by the poor quality of some of the commentary. Tonight for example Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were complaining about an illegal contact penalty called against the Ravens for a foul on Wes Welker. While they were busy mocking the replacement refs and pontificating about the call like a pair of "holier than thou" twats, it seems that neither of them took the time to notice that the defender put his hands up into Wes Welkers face. Or as it's otherwise known in football; illegal contact - hands to the face.
 
Just because the ref didn't explain the last bit of the call doesn't mean that the foul didn't occur. It just served to highlight the inability of the commentary team to function without having every minute detail handed to them on a plate (all TV networks have a team of people following each individual match up in a game who then feed information to the commentators. Or do you really think it's just a coincidence or skill that colour commentators just happen to always have been looking at the vital matchup on every single play?)
 
- And frankly, I think I prefer these refs. The game tonight was a hell of a lot more entertaining, as all the games this season have been. They let the game flow for the most part, and only call some of the more blatant and/or serious infractions. And unlike the regular officials they haven't been sucked into the "this is a passing league" mantra which means they're not afraid to actually call offensive pass interference when they see it.
 
Again, these replacements are not perfect. They still miss some calls and they still make calls that are dubious. But I would say on balance they're about as imperfect as the regular officials, while being a hell of a lot cheaper.
 
Much of the madness and rhetoric surrounding the replacements has been stoked by shitty commentating and analysis, along with coaches taking liberties with the replacements that they wouldn't dare against the regulars (would Belichick touch a regular official? Not a chance).
 
It's just so annoying because like most things in football these days common sense, logic, and actual facts take a back seat to drivelling bollocks that is sensationalised to the extreme. 
 
Like ProFootballTalk.com, but everywhere.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Times They Are A Changin'

Or in other words, I really don't have enough time to run this blog in the way that I used to. Fixed schedules, regular articles etc just aren't working. And so when times change, you need to adapt. On that note, I'm going to have to alter the way I approach this blog. Instead of doing extensive summaries of each weeks games as I did last year, this year I'm going to have to take a more ad hoc approach, writing articles as and when I have the time to do so, focused more on just sharing my thoughts about certain topics. For now at least that's just how it'll have to be.

Apologies.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

NFL Week Two: Thursday Night Pick

After shitting out at 8-8 for week one it's almost a relief that this week I've been pretty busy. I have enough time - with the clock winding away - to say that I'm taking the Bears over the Packers tonight, because I think the Bears are for real and the Packers might have had some long term problems exposed by the 49ers.

Monday, September 10, 2012

NFL Week One Pick: Monday Night Football

Two games for Monday night. Had a pretty average day yesterday with the picks. One of the few people to nail the 49ers over the Packers, but a lot of surprises and upsets. I'll probably do a recap with my thoughts on Wednesday. But for now though, time to pick the Monday Night games.

Sunday, September 09, 2012

NFL Week One Picks: Late Games

So now I'm going to move on the late games.

NFL Week One predictions; 1pm kick offs

So, classic, I take the Giants over Dallas, because Dalls won't run the ball.... and surprise, surprise, what do the Cowboys do? Yeah, great. 0-1 to start the season. There's only about 45 minutes till the Sunday games kick off so I'm going to have to pile through these somewhat, but even if I over run by a few minutes that shouldn't make too much of a big deal. Let's get started.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Week 1: Cowboys @ Giants

It's finally here. Week 1. The drought is over. I can almost sense the feeling in the air that football is returning. Granted, that might just be because it's 5am here and I just went outside wearing slippers and it's damn cold, but whatever.

Cowboys @ Giants
And we kick off the season with the Giants playing host to the Cowboys in a mid week game. It's a nice rivalry game to start off with and for the Giants I see this as being a perfect start to the defense of their crown.

See when I look at the Giants roster, I see all the great things they had from last season, minus the secondary. I have to admit, that looks suspect. But I still see a great running game, reasonably good protection, a monstrous defensive line and a wide receiver corps that is over flowing with talented players.

When I look at the Cowboys... eh not so much. I think defensively they have a solid amount of talent that will flex its muscles over the course of the season, but once again I see a group of receivers that has maybe one stand out in Miles Austin, one so-so in Dez Bryant, and then the solid Jason Witten. I see Tony Romo, who is prone to mistakes. I see an offensive line that I don't think will stand up well to the Giants pass rush.

The major bright spot for the Cowboys is the rushing attack, but let's not kid ourselves. The Cowboys don't really do rushing anymore. Whether that's influenced by Jerry Jones or not I couldn't tell you, but they seem fixated on proving that Romo is a worthy quarterback instead of playing their hot hand which is with DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones. And even if they did, I'm not sure the Cowboys line can create enough holes for those guys to run through.

We all know how difficult it is to defend a Super Bowl title. Every season is effectively a complete restart as even the best teams inevitably lose players to free agency as the Giants did, especially in the secondary. But I think enough of the core Giants defenders have remained in order to see them past the Cowboys, and I think Eli Manning retains enough weapons on offense to compliment that defense.

Giants win.