More Observations and Thoughts
Published on November 24, 2009
The Monday Night Football announcers were talking about how Tennessee has dominated time of possession since Vince Young took over. But why does anyone care about time of possession? If you run the ball, the clock moves, but if you pass, it will stop on an incompletion. But what's the difference whether you get a first down on three running plays or three passing plays, two of which are incomplete? The defense is still on the field for the same amount of time - it just doesn't count as "time of possession" when the clock isn't running. Put differently, it's not like a defense gets a break just because the pass you threw was incomplete - it still had to rush the passer and cover everyone. And the players are still standing there while you're huddling no matter what the clock is doing. Tom Coughlin and David Letterman have something in common - they're were both blackmailed by some desperate moron. Vince Young played a great game Monday night. He even threw a perfect deep ball to Nate Washington that was dropped. His uncanny instincts about when he should buy time in the pocket to throw and when he should run are back. The Titans defense is just average, but I don't think they'll be an easy out for anyone including Indy. In case you wanted to know more about the late Dock Ellis pitching a no hitter while tripping his nut sack off, here's the animated story of it. It explains how Ellis thought it was his off day until he saw in the newspaper that he was listed as the starter. And how everyone back then was on "greenies," i.e., speed, anyway. I didn't watch the end of the Ravens-Colts game in its entirety, but from flipping channels and then checking out the game logs, it looks like Joe Flacco and the Ravens repeated Bill Belichick's decision from last week - only with a different twist. The Ravens were down two and had 3rd and 7 from the Indy 14-yard line with 2:42 to go. Why on earth would the Ravens chance a pass play and a pick? Why not run the ball, let the clock run down to the two-minute warning or make the Colts burn a timeout and kick the chip-shot go-ahead field goal? Because Baltimore didn't want to give Manning the ball back needing only a field goal to win it. They wanted to give themselves the chance of getting the first-down/touchdown and force the Colts to go the distance. If the Ravens were playing almost any other team, you have to think they'd have run the ball there, been content to take the lead and turn the game over to their defense. The news gets worse for Calvin Johnson as he's now iffy with a hand injury for Thursday's game against the Packers. And even if he plays he'll likely be without Matt Stafford right after the two seemed to click. I lost in the Facebook experts league this week because I couldn't switch out Braylon Edwards for Cadillac Williams at the last second. I tried to do it while doing the Fantasy Football Live rapid response segment, but we have to keep our eyes on the camera, and I was unable to execute the move. I also could have sworn I replaced Jay Feely for another kicker, but when I checked the scores tonight, Feely and his two points were still in my lineup from the previous week. A few weeks ago, I talked about my embarrassment of riches NFL.com Expert League team. Later that week, I dealt Knowshon Moreno, Kevin Smith, Steve Smith (NYG) and Eli Manning for Chris Johnson, Steve Smith (CAR) and Jay Cutler. Even though Cutler's been a downgrade, getting Johnson was well worth it. It does hurt that I lost Ronnie Brown and Dwayne Bowe the last two weeks, but even so, I still have Ray Rice, Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Smith and just have to mix and match around the edges. For another take on the weekend's games, check out Scott Pianowski's Roto Arcade "Monday Dinner" blog. Good insight into a number of things including the "shut-down" corner matchup myth and Antonio Gates' pedestrian season.
