Thursday, December 28, 2006

Week 16

If one only cares about results, Week 16 went great. The Jets beat Miami(fuck Miami) and the Jaguars and Bengals lost, meaning the Jets make the playoffs with a win over the pathetic Raiders at home next week. If one actually watched the Jets play, however...

Chad sucks. He's not quite Rex Grossman, but he's pretty bad. He threw 5 interceptions against Miami. The stats won't reflect this, since none of the 5 horrible passes were actually caught. Miami sucks(fuck Miami.) The number comes from a count of passes that were so bad that only the defense could have caught them, and should have easily caught them(so we are not counting passes that technically fit that definition, but were harmless.) The word on Chad, if you listen to analysts(and NY sports-talk radio, but I only listened to it once, so I won't generalize,) is that he has a weak arm, but he's smart and accurate. The 5 interceptions clearly show that he is not accurate. As far as smart, that seems a bit of a stretch, since most of these interceptions were the result of a poor decision as well as inaccuracy. Even his touchdown pass, which I won't go as far as to count among his interceptions, was a perfect throw into double coverage. When you see a similar play in poker, like a guy calling off his stack with third pair and being right, you think-this guy is either amazing or horrible, meaning it's the sort of play that only a great player should try, and if a lesser player tries, it is bad judgment and if he succeeds, he is just lucky. Considering how inaccurate Chad had been up to that point, I think the latter explanation fits much better.

Now those analysts. These fucking airheads watch the touchdown and say things like "Pennington does just enough to win. He keeps his team in the game and makes plays when he needs to." As if, in going almost 3 quarters with just one decent scoring chance(botched snap on field goal attempt) and having the defense shut out Miami(fuck Miami) is Chad "keeping his team in the game." It seems to me that the defense kept the team in the game while the offense produced 0. Tony Kornheiser goes from making fun of Chad to singing his praises as a leader in an instant.

This game was BORING. For almost 3 whole quarters, there was no scoring, and both offenses were going 3 and out almost every drive. If one didn't care and weren't crazy(and you'd have to be to root for the Jets,) I don't think this game would have been watchable.

I hate how nobody seems to think the Jets need a quarterback. Until that happens, no moves will be made to draft one. We should have taken Matt Leinart in the draft this year. I hope we get another similar opportunity soon...

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Ravens-Bengals

A couple of notes on tonight's game in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati successfully "iced the kicker". Last play of the first half, Ravens snap the ball, kick is good, but there are whistles. Time out, Cincinnati. No play. Ravens redo the kick, wide left. I read that the statistics show that icing the kicker is meaningless at best. Still, everyone does it. I wonder if they've studied it's effect on basketball players' free throws.

On Baltimore's (meaningless) touchdown late in the 4th, Derrick Mason, the Ravens' receiver, ran into the DB, which the commentator correctly said was not pass interference. What he failed to notice was that, along with running into the DB and pushing him, Mason also noticeably FOLLOWED THROUGH on his push. How this escaped both the refs and the commentators is beyond me. The commentator even went as far as to say "That's not pass interference. Good no-call."