Sports

I realize that posting on the Cardinals - Eagles game isn’t super timely, but I’m not out to recap the action; the Cardinals won, 32-25, and they’re moving on to the Super Bowl. In the aftermath of the game, I heard a lot of commentators (particularly over at KJR 950, sports radio in Seattle) that the Eagles failed to blitz Warner until the second half, when they applied plenty of pressure, but by then it was too late. I was surprised to hear this, particularly since I watched the game on the DVR and thus skipped past a lot of chatter. I watched all the snaps, essentially one after another with very little interruption, and what struck me at the time was that the Eagles were playing incredibly aggressive football but the Cardinals simply overcame it. On several plays, for example, Warner released the ball within, oh, call it 1 second after receving the snap. Quick plays that might “only” yield 5 or 6 yards, but when a pressure defense is hoping for an incompletion or sack and instead they’re now facing second and 4, that’s an incredible swing. Edgerrin James had several big runs, particularly in the first half, when the line didn’t so much open holes as they allowed the Eagles rushers to over-pursue the QB, leaving space for James to get into the secondary.

Mostly, though, Kurt Warner was simply a very accurate, patient quarterback on Sunday who made good decisions while, at the same time, the Eagles secondary players were performing at par level. They weren’t particularly screwing up nor were they embarassing themselves, but Warner was performing at a very high level, his receivers were performing their jobs well, and by and large the Eagles didn’t execute as well. This is quite different, though, from the Eagles failing to execute their game plan, or making dumb decisions. Pressuring the quarterback is smart against a team that passes a lot, but when two sets of 11 very talented men perform against one another, you can do a good job and still not succeed sometimes.

This post at SeaTown Sports got me thinking. Do the Seahawks want to win any games at this point? (A later post on the same blog asks the same question.) From a statistical standpoint, the Seahawks have nothing to gain from winning games. First, it lowers their draft position. “But high 1st round picks can be a albatross!” you say? Ok, but your draft position is the same in all 7 rounds. Players get snaked out from under you in the third round as much as they do in the first. Also, 2 of the 16 games each year are scheduled based on the previous year’s performance - the worse you did, the weaker (at least, historically) your competition the next year. That’s “only” two games, but you can also call that 12.5% of your schedule - 20 games in baseball and 10 in basketball, for comparision. That first post I linked to takes solace in the fact that the Seahawks are now guaranteed not to be in last place in the division; does third or fourth make a difference? I doubt it. Winning your division is important because you get a playoff spot. Coming in 2nd/3rd/4th doesn’t bear on anything at all.

And so it ends.

I lost this week and it wasn’t close: 117-99, an 18 point victory that means he could’ve not played his quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) and still beat me by a point. The irony? Every single move that I made was a good one! Check it:

• Peyton Manning outscored Jay Cutler, 18-10.
• Vincent Jackson outscored the receiver he replaced, Amani Toomer, 12(!)-3.
• My running backs: Jones-Drew (played) - 18, Williams (played) 14, Tomlinson (sat) - 12, Jacobs (out injured) - 0.
• Pittsburgh DEF over Chicago - 10-5.
• I even made a good last minute call - Jason Elam was reported to have a gimpy leg so I dropped him for Rob Bironas of Tennessee. Bironas 14(!!), Elam 7.

So given all of that, how could I lose? Easy, in two parts. First, my opponent was a beast, led by Michael Turner’s 24. He sat an injured Marion Barber for Stephen Jackson (how’s that for depth), who went for 18. Randy Moss for 18. Baltimore’s defense for 11. The only player who could be said to really under-perform for him was Brandon Marshall with 4.

Meanwhile, my Roddy White went for 6, Terrell Owens added 3, and Jason Whitten chipped in 4. Not absolutely atrocious (well, Owens for 3 was sad) but typically not enough to sink me. This, of course, is why my opponent was the #1 seed this year.

So there you have it, my first year of Fantasy Football. I really learned a lot. The few moves I made supported by a lot of research were either good or neutral; anything intuitive killed me. I drafted far too many players that were a year or two past their prime, hoping they’d continue to stay healthy. One of those, maybe two, can be ok, but I lived and died by the injury report, more than others in the league. And, I learned that fantasy football is a lot of fun. I’ll be back; thanks for reading!

New Huskie coach Sarkisian

Not that I think anybody read my posts on the subject, but I’m still glad that the University of Washington followed my advice and hired Steve Sarkisian, the offensive coordinator at Southern Cal, as their new football coach. Like I said before, UW wasn’t getting themselves a first-rate coach in their current predicament. The one potential exception was Mike Leach from Texas Tech, if only because he’s thought to be enough of a cantankerous coot that he couldn’t get a job to match his stature. I still say he was a non-starter and that the Texas Tech position is as prestigious as the UW job, if only while Leach has it.

In any case, there’s no guarantee that Sarkisian will work out, but he’s exactly the sort of hire that Washington needed to make, so kudos to them for doing the right thing. God, trying to care for this program is hard, let something go right for them!

Knowshon, but for how long?

The Georgia Bulldogs ended their season last week with a 45-42 loss to Ga. Tech, in Athens no less. I know, it’s far too late to break the game down; fine, don’t wanna. (My bumper sticker of choice in college said “Avoid the rush, hate Tech now.” So, yeah.) I just want to take a moment to suggest that this was a gift in disguise for the Bulldogs as a program. The only thing better, in my mind, is if the Dawgs go out and lose their bowl game. I won’t actually be able to bring myself to root against them, but I’m as sure about this as pro fans who hope their mediocre team (I’m looking at you, Seahawks) will go in the tank to secure a high draft position. Let me exaplain why.

Thanks, Tom!

Tommy Tuberville’s decided to resign from Auburn University recently; at least, that’s what the AD says. Whether he quit or was fired, though, this is bad news for the University of Washington. After the Tennessee job was filled, UW could at least position itself as the job vacancy with the most reflected glory attached to it; after all, UW has half of a national championship to its name in the last twenty years, and has been bowl-competitive in the last decade. True, the current sustained awfulness makes the job a lot less desirable to anyone who doesn’t want a massive clean-up job, but Huskies could at least kid themselves into thinking that  Mike Leach, for example, would see a once-proud Pac-10 program as an upgrade from Texas Tech.

Now, though, that’s just ridiculous. At least until Auburn gets filled, the idea that a successful coach with dreams of performing on a bigger stage would take an 0-12 Pac-10 doormat over a 5-7 Auburn team that was competitive even this year, nevermind the recent past, is absurd. (h/t Andy Schlafly.)  Which takes us back to my previous advice (’cause this is all about me, never forget…) that UW find itself a smart, hungry assistant from an established program and give them a bigger promotion than they might normally deserve. Taking a chance on somebody with good intangibles but no resume is their best shot at a fast(ish) turn around.

Yeeeeaaah, so I have a lot of catching up to do, so let’s get to it.

• Prior to week 8, I had offered up a couple of trade that would have upgraded a couple of my opponents but would have upgraded me even more over the multiple trades; in other words, I make 2 opponents ~5 points better, but over the deals make myself ~10 points better. Alas, neither of them took me up on the offers, so I worked the free agent list a bit. In the end, though, I merely started Brett Favre over Peyton Manning, which was a 5-point mistake on my part. Fortunately Santana Moss, Roddy White, and LaDanian Tomlinson all went over 20, leading to a 9-point win over the doormat of the leauge; final score 111-102. Sad, but true.
• Week 9 saw me meddle around some more, sending Favre packing again (just can’t trust him) and picking up Maurice Jones-Drew. In hindsight that might seem prophetic, but he actually han’t busted out just yet. On the other hand, I had to soak up LT’s bye week so he was better than nothing. Once again, however, I failed at picking my QB, as Cutler scored 18 while Manning left his 24 on the bench. This week’s match-up pitted me against an opponent, however, whose team completely failed to show up, and I actually had a comfortable 81-70 win. From 2-5 to 4-5, maybe things aren’t so bad, right?
• Wrong. Week 10 faced me up against the league’s best team, and he proved it with an easy 99-86 mash. It figures, even when I pick a 27-point QB I manage to leave Cutler’s 35 on the bench. I had also dropped Maurice Jones-Drew that week, when he then proceeded to trash the Lions for 27. Add in two receivers who combined for 1 point, and, well, yeah - I lost. One interesting personnel note: Jason Witten was dropped, thanks to poor Cowboys quarterbacking and a team owner’s need to tinker with a few bye weeks. Frankly, a tight end on a bye is no worse than Anthony Fasano, who I’ve been starting the entire season. I scoop him up for the future. At any rate, my record is 4-6 and things are looking grim.

This week is the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party; go spit, SEC, that’s what it’s called, and I don’t even drink. Before I get into what’s on my mind, a little refresher for those of you insensitive enough not to keep up with such heady affairs. Last year, in an effort to get the Bulldogs fired up in the face of a nearly-unbroken chain of defeats in the last 10-15 years, Georgia coach Mark Richt told the team that if there wasn’t a penalty called for unnecessary celebration after the first Georgia score, the team would be running sprints the next day.

Well.

Georgia scored an early touchdown, and the entire team ran out and into the end zone. Now, Coach Richt says that he only expected the players on the field to participate; others call “bullshit.” Personally, I’m not sure but I suspect cow patties may, indeed, be involved. Whatever. Georgia won that day, and the nation’s sports media ate up both the event and the Gators’ fuming about. And yes, I think the Gators have a point - the coach telling his players intentionally to incur penalties is not a smooth move.

As has been widely reported, Tyrone Willingham is stepping down at the end of the season. If you’ve been following UW football at all this year, this is absolutely no shock to anyone. Many folks were surprised that he kept his job after last year, and as the losses piled up the expectations grew that he’d be fired in the middle of the year. UW, however, doesn’t think of itself as that kind of institution, and so they offer him a graceful exit. That’s fine; as a caller to KJR said, there’s not much difference between an interim coach with no shot at the job and Willingham playing out the string.

The problem, as I listened to KJR (I love the sports radio in Seattle), is that Husky fans think that they’re going to hook a 1st rate, established coach. The head coach at Missouri(!), Gary Pinkel, came up a couple of time. Folks, get real. Washington has been awful for years now, it has outdated facilities, and it has to recruit against Oregon, Cal, and USC in the Pacific Northwest; no established, successful coach is going to want this gig right now.

I have three words for you, Husky fans: Mark Muthafuckin’ Richt.