Preparing for the 2013 NFL Draft

It's been a few hours now, so I'm slightly over my rage at the result of the Super Bowl (I hate the Ravens). Now that the Super Bowl is out of the way it's on to the 2013 Draft. I'm quite busy at the minute, but I expect to start looking into the quarterbacks this weekend.

And so the cycle of seasons resets and repeats.

Oh wait, first I wanted to do that review of my 2012 draft "scouting", if that's what you want to call it. So that first, then on to the 2013 draft. I have a feeling this year is going to see a lot more activity and enjoyment on this blog than 2012 did, at least from my perspective.

ProIdiotTalk

I said I was going to wait until after the Super Bowl to start up again with more articles. I broke that promise once and then made it again. And now I'm breaking it again. Because I saw something incredibly stupid on ProFootballTalk.com the other day. Which is a bit like saying that you've found straw in a horses stable. When doesn't PFT have stupid s**t posted on their site?

In this case it was about Bill Belichick, and the sheer level of stupidity in the article was astounding. Basically it was a criticism of Belichick for punting to the Ravens in the AFC Championship game, on fourth down and 8, leading to an 87-yard TD drive by the Ravens.

The argument was that a field goal attempt was only 52 yards. But the conditions were poor and Belichick obviously decided it wasn't going to happen. It's what the writer said next that cracked me up; "but it’s surprising that he didn’t just go for it instead of punting the ball back to the Ravens. And punting the ball back to the Ravens turned out to be a mistake".

Regardless of whether you read "go for it" as meaning to try the field goal or to attempt to throw it, neither option is better than punting unless you pull something special out. Do you now how hard it is, even for a team like the Patriots, to complete a pass on a 4th and 8? When the opposition can sit back and give you all the short stuff because it doesn't matter if you get 7 yards when you need 8 or you turn the ball over.

And if you miss the field goal or you miss the first down, both of which are more likely than making them under those conditions, then what do you do? I'll tell you what you do, you give the ball back to the Ravens on downs, with much less than 87-yards to drive for the score.

So you're telling me the Ravens scored from 87-yards out, but if they'd only been say 60 odd yards out, then they wouldn't have scored? That would have been better than giving them another 20-30 yards to drive? What? On what planet does that make sense?

Answer: Planet PFT. Where idiocy reigns supreme.

This is another part of what I was writing about in my last post. It's the whole god damn statistics culture that has sprung up, where people think it's trendy to call head coaches idiots because they make decisions based on their experience and knowledge of the game, and their judgement in the moment of the conditions, instead of putting a bunch of numbers of incredibly dubious reliability into a spreadsheet that supposedly makes "perfect" decisions.

I don't always agree with coaches and I often call them stupid, but I at least respect the fact that they're making the decisions on the fly in the heat of the game, and that they often achieve better results than what the statistics people suggest they should.

It's "cool" right now to suggest that everyone should go for it on 4th down, regardless of the distance and the quality of the opponent it would seem. And I'm sick of seeing this crap pop everywhere.

Still, the 49ers are in the Super Bowl, so that's a consolation.

John Fox and "that" kneel down

I hadn't planned to write a new post until after the season was done, but I feel compelled to now because of something that happened this weekend in the Broncos/Ravens game, and the reaction of both fans and the media to it.

Yes, we're talking about the Broncos decision to take a knee on their 20 yard line with 31 seconds left on the clock and two timeouts remaining.

A new post?

How rare is this? A new post!! Just to say that once the season is over I'm going to do a review of my early predictions regarding this years draft class. Suffice to say I hit a certain number of nails bang on the head, including one which I'm ridiculously smug about. And probably will be for many years to come.

Check back after the Super Bowl.

Andy Reid and Robert Griffin III

It's been a long time since I last posted on this blog. I just haven't had the time so much these days. But two things have truly been nagging at me so much that I just could not let them lie any longer. After months of inactivity I've basically been compelled to post, driven by two stories that are prevalent in the NFL right now; the situation with the Philadelphia Eagles and the career of Robert Griffin III.

My suggestion for Cam Newton

Just when you thought I had fallen off the face of the Earth, I'm back. And I have a few suggestions for Cam Newton and the Panthers, seen as how they're asking. I sincerely hope someone shows this to Cam or someone at the Panthers because they quite literally look bad enough right now to need help from the blogosphere, or whatever the hell the Internet blogging community is referred to as these days. 

And because I hate the Panthers (or was it just John Fox? I can't remember).

Thoughts on Week 5

What a bizarre week in the NFL.

 

First the Rams defy expectations and overcome the Cardinals. That was a big one for the Rams as it helps to establish the fact that they do have some decent players on their team who can produce. Just need to find a bit of consistency now.

Thoughts after Week 4

So I've just finished watching Tony Romo have another meltdown game, this time against the Bears, though how much of that was actually Romo's fault is up for debate. Suffice to say that his receivers didn't help him much and in particular Dez Bryant has a lot to think about in the week ahead.

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. 

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.