Sharks in the water

Sparano is safe. For now at least it seems the Dolphins have decided to stick with Tony for another year. That leaves the door open for the 49ers to pounce uncontested on Jim Harbaugh. That is of course if they can convince Harbaugh to leave Stanford, which is something that his QB Andrew Luck is not quite ready to do just yet, returning for another year with the Cardinal (must... resist... temptation... to pluralise....). With Sparano returning, we've also now learned that Dan Henning, the offensive coordinator, won't. Henning oversaw a sketchy offense in Miami this year. Chad Henne seemed to regress as the season went along and there was almost no talk of running backs Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams who faded into the dust it would seem. The Cowboys meanwhile have now officially promoted Jason Garrett to the position of permanent Head Coach (God help him), having conducted all the necessary token interviews of black coaches. The Vikings Head Coach for 2011, Leslie Frazier, is also quite busy. Reports from the press indicate that the Vikings have interviews lined up with former 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary, possibly just to come in as a linebackers coach, along with an interview for former Broncos top man Josh McDaniels to be the offensive coordinator. Two hires that sound surprisingly wise for the Vikings. Wise is not the choice of words I would use though for the latest outburst from Chad Ochocinco. According to ProFootballTalk.com, Ochocinco went for the publicity jugular by saying that race is the determining reason why a guy like Favre would be paid $4 million to come back for another season, but why nobody would give Owens or Ochocinco $4 million. At first I was like "no way, no way did he say something that stupid!!". Then I watched the video..... What the hell Chad? The only thing I can think of was that he was going for the shock factor. In fact, this next video might suggest that's precisely what Ochocinco was going for. At least, I hope it was. On a side note, NFL.com really needs to get one of its web designer/engineer type people to check out Versus.com's site, with particular attention to the video. Look!! The videos load at a normal rate without constant lag! I can click anywhere along the time bar and the video instantly jumps to, and plays from, that point without having to reload the entire damn video! There are less adverts, and God knows the Versus network must need the revenue money more than the NFL. And I can embed the videos! That means I can show people their content which is more likely to drive pageviews back to their site! It's a miracle isn't it NFL.com? To provide a decent (and profitable) service for your fans/customers/potential customers without being assholes. You should try it sometime.

Childress fired

Brad Childress is gone. Vikings fans are probably rejoicing right about now at the news that Brad Childress has been fired as the Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings. In the meantime Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier has been named interim Head Coach. As far as I'm aware, Jay Glazer of FOX sports was the first to break the news. So, what can Vikings fans expect now? Who knows. Hopefully two things will happen to make an immediate shake up; 1) Favre will be dumped and 2) Tavaris Jackson will be given a shot as the starting QB for the rest of the season, allowing the Vikings to assess whether they really want to stick with Jackson who has failed to cement himself as a consistent, quality quarterback. Something had to be done though. The Vikings have been horrible at times. They'll be hoping the winds of change can fix blow away some of the negativity in the locker room and help to unify the team. Now is Frazier the long term answer? I'm not sure. Don't forget that the Vikings defense hasn't exactly played it's part this season. Either way this will be a good audition for Frazier, who many believed was in the running to get a permanent HC shot somewhere else if the Vikings stuck with 'Chilly'. So, there we are. I'll be back either later today, maybe tomorrow to round up the weekends action. Till then, Have a great day everyone. (Just quickly, a little song in honor of Brad "Chilly" Childress)

Vikings @ Saints recap

Games done so it's time to wrap up the Vikings @ Saints: Vikings 9 @ Saints 14 -- Ya see, this is why I hate coaches like Brad Childress. You have a great running back in Adrian Peterson. 19 carries for 87 yards. Longest carry was 14 yards. He wasn't exactly ripping up the artificial turf at the Louisiana Superdome but at least he was plugging along nicely, as the title of my blog says "Keeping the Chains moving". So why, why in the name of god would you come out in the second half and barely let him touch the ball? Given that the Vikings were ahead and that even after Pierre Thomas scored, you still only had to make up 5 points, why would you completely abandon one of your best offensive assets in favour of throwing incompletions left, right and center (Favre finished 15/27 for 171 yards, a TD and an INT)? It just defies belief. Surely a drive that takes 11 plays or more and burns 6-7 minutes off the clock, but at the very least ends in a score or at least a potential score is better than throwing the ball 3 or 4 times ineffectually and then punting and letting the Saints run off the clock? It's like the Dolphins/Saints game from last year all over again, or the Panthers every damn week! Ah well. A few positives to take away would be that a) if the Vikings keep playing like this then the Packers are a lock for the division title and b) at least we have proof that the Saints aren't infallible as many people would have you believe they are. Brees finished 27/36 for 237 yards and a TD, but the Saints didn't look as crisp offensively as they did last season. Defensively the standouts were all Vikings. LB Chad Greenway recorded 9 tackles and 3 assists. LB E.J. Henderson recorded 8 tackles and one assist, and finally Antoine Winfield finished with 7 tackles and 2 assists. Overall a faltering, unsteady start from both teams that they will want to put behind them as quickly as possible. I'll be back tomorrow to start previewing the rest of the Week 1 action but until then, Have a great day everyone.

Trawling the net for Football gems.

So today I've been browsing around the web etc and checking out what's generally going on in the football world and so here I present to you some of my humble observations: 1) I read an article about Quarterbacking, which to cut a long story short, bemoaned the lack of quality teaching today regarding a QB's arm position during the throw. The writer included a piece by a well known QB coach (who advertises on his site. Just thought I'd mention that). In the way that seems all to typical of college coaches now (which both the writer and his sponsor, sorry, contributor are), he levelled the lofty finger of criticism at the pros. It was the usual, "they don't really understand football, not like we do in Division 3...." type of thing. The most severe critique was saved for the way pro coaches obsess over footwork. And to be honest, the pro coaches have this one in the bag. Stand in the middle of a field, feet shoulder with apart and facing forward, and throw a ball to a friend using nothing more than your arm motion. Good luck with that by the way. It probably didn't travel very far. Now introduce the hips. And now finally the legs and feet, allowing yourself to coil back and throw. The power in the proverbial "Big arm" comes from using the whole body as a sling. Generating power begins in the legs and the hips. To do this properly, to allow yourself to follow through completely, you must first plant your feet properly. Hence the seemingly inordinate amount of time that top QB coaches devote to footwork. 2) Talking of QB's, Brett Favre comes to mind. The stats are good. He's completing about 68% of his passes (174/256), for 1,925 yds total and an average of 7.5 yds per completion. But what really sticks out is the business end of the numbers. 16 TD's, matched only by Matt Schaub and Drew Brees. But what he has that they don't is just 3 INT's, (compared to 6 & 7 for Brees and Schaub respectively). This is what is marking him out for possibly his greatest season yet. The old gunslinger from the south has tempered his game a little, reducing turnovers to help a team that features a fantastic RB and a great D. All the while, still finding time to put points on the board. Watching him in action, he really does look superb this season. If he and the Vikings were to win the Superbowl this year, it would be thoroughly, thoroughly, deserved. 3) Lot of talk around about firing head coaches. Eric Mangini should top that list. The Redskins, the Rams, the Lions, the Titans and the Raiders have all hardly set the world alight this year, but at least they've tried. At least they've gone about their business with a bit of guts in some places. Meanwhile the Browns trot out week on week and seem to dissolve in front of our very eyes each week. Complaints among the players about their coach are rife. God knows how he acquired the title 'Man-genius', but I wish people would stop giving him that much credit. The argument currently in vogue is that firing Mangini now would serve no purpose, and that the Browns would not really progress at all as a club. Well hey, newsflash, this season the Browns have, somehow, regressed since last season. Mangini has made this team worse. A new coach may not fix all the problems now, but at least you'd be solving the franchises biggest problem, i.e. Mangini. 4) The consensus opinion among the great and the good of football analysis and commentary seems to be that the New Orleans Saints are the best team in football right now. And it's simply not true. There seems to be no other evidence for this decision that's been made than the fact that they're 7-0. Which on the surface seems fantastic. Except that the Colts are also 7-0, and they're a much better team. And lets not forget about the Denver Broncos, who at 6-0 were being touted as the previous best team in the NFL, the team that everyone now had to beat etc... until the Ravens torched them 30-7. Remember the Saints vs Dolphins a couple of weeks ago? You should, because were it not for some shocking play calling the Dolphins would have utterly embarrassed the "best team in the NFL right now". Then this week, they scrape past the Falcons. Yes people, the Falcons. Looking at some of the quality sides in the NFL who year on year produce great results, it's hard to get to excited about the Saints just yet. 5) In an interesting addition to the above, I thought it was quite amusing to see Darren Sharper lauded for his pick in last weeks game. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about with misplaced praise. It was a jump ball. There were at least 5 or 6 Saints just clamouring for a piece of that ball. Sharper was the one under it. Suddenly that's the mark of a great player, with the so often quoted phrase "ball hawk" being rolled out. If catching a last second desperation jump ball on the 20 yard line makes you great, then there's still hope for many a rubbish defensive player in the league. And all the while no-one is talking about the Saints combo of cornerbacks, Jabari Greer, Randall Gay and most importantly, Tracy Porter. 6) The praise so far for Vince Young has been overflowing from pretty much every orifice that the Internet has to offer. People saying how well he controlled the game, made no mistakes and just did enough to help the Titans win. Well I hate to point this out, but that's exactly what Kerry Collins did last year, except Collins is going to be a ton cheaper next year. Being a game manager is pretty easy for most quarterbacks, especially ones in Tennessee right now. Hand the ball off and let Johnson and White do all the damage. All you have to do is limit (read: eliminate) turnovers. Young can do that. Collins can do that. Hell, I could probably do that. What the Titans need to see from Young is this; if we get ourselves in a situation where we cant run the ball, can you lead us to victory? Flacco is starting to do it in Baltimore. Roethlisberger did it for Pittsburgh last year. That's the question that needs to be answered of Vince Young. Not, "if we play our normal style of running football, can we trust you to hand the ball off correctly?". 7) Everyone is crying about the recent slump of Giants Quarterback Eli Manning. Now, this deserves a reality check. No, that's not quite sufficient. It deserves a hard slap in the face. Eli is not his brother. He's not Philip Rivers, he's not Tom Brady, he's not Drew Brees, he's none of these people. What he is, is the brother of one of the best quarterbacks in the league, who happened to be the guy that was asked in Superbowl 42, to chuck what was for all intended purposes a 'hail mary' pass into the endzone, which was caught for a game winning touchdown. No more, no less. He's an average QB. He's ok, he's better than Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson. He's better than JaMarcus Russell. But he's still not good enough to take the game out of the hands of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, who would probably very much appreciate the ball not being constantly turned over at the QB position. That's just the facts. Manning is good. But he's no Manning. 8) The Packers defence is drawing a lot of heat lately, with a lot of talk about whether one of the defensive ends should line up on the LOS or 1 yard off it. Yes people, it's the old 4-3/3-4, let's-all-pretend-it-makes-a-huge-amount-of-difference debate once more this season. I'm always told in the greatest of confidence and without any hint of shame by people that it's to do with getting the right personnel in the right spot. Because of course, if you had a 330-pound nose tackle, you wouldn't dare put him in a 4-3 defence. God no!! Only a 3-4, etc, etc, the arguments go on. What the Packers might want to do is focus a bit more on their appalling O-line and their abysmal rushing attack. 9) Maurice Jones-Drew. So the story goes, he chose 32 as his Jersey number to remind him (and doubtless the world) that 32 teams passed on him first time around. It is widely believed that most teams considered him too small to succeed (approximately 5ft 7in). Only in the NFL could a short player like Jones-Drew be considered unsuitable for a position that requires a quick burst of speed, the ability to change directions rapidly and the ability to get your pads low on a tackler. That is all.