Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Hell must be being a Falcons fan

A human is someone who makes mistakes. A fool is someone who makes the SAME mistakes. I know that Arthur Blank is allegedly a smart, successful man, but he's one step away from drafting a running QB who has an illegal cat juggling operation on the sly. It's now being reported that Blank is going after Pete Carroll of USC. Listen, I'm not saying Carroll is a bad coach or even as slimy as Bobby Petrino, but Blank is nuts to hire another college coach. Carroll does have NFL experience. He's a proven winner with a career mark of 34-33 (I threw up a little in my mouth just typing that). But why would you 1. hire a coach before a GM 2. Hire a guy with a mediocre track record in the NFL and 3. hire a coach from college. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last NFL coach to make the successful jump from college was Jimmy Johnson (and no, I'm not forgetting Barry Switzer. Not even a little). Didn't Blank learn anything the first time? I hope he does get Carroll (though I doubt he will), just so I can mock him for it.

My favorite line people throw out when talking about the Colts/Chargers game is that the Colts lost the first game without Marvin Harrison. That's why Peyton played so bad. Um, folks, if only. As Kravitz rightly points out today, the Colts played that game without:
Marvin Harrison,
Dallas Clark,
Anthony Gonzalez,
Tony Ugoh,
and lost Ryan Diem in the middle.
That's just on offense. Neither the line nor the WRs had any clue what they were doing that day. I love the stat that Colts starters missed 88 games this year. Sounds right symbolically at least.

Here's a great piece on someone the Colts MUST account for on Sunday.

Jeff Chadia likes 2004 Manning over 2007 Brady. He likes 84 Marino better than everyone. He also makes several factual errors, so take it for what it's worth (the Colts finished '04 at Denver not Arizona-that was o5)

Scouts Inc. has lost it (did they ever have it?). They listed the weakness of the top 4 teams in the NFL. The Colts? Their run D. Nope. Sorry guys. If you go by yards per game, maybe, but on a yards per carry basis, the Colts are rock solid. The Colts real vulnerability is generating a pass rush. When a cover two D can't generate a rush, a good QB will find holes in the zone and exploit them. The Colts are vulnerable to teams with great lines and QBs that can be accurate to hit open men. You could also say that the Colts O is vulnerable to the pass rush as well, but we'll see if that's as true once Diem comes back. Once again, Scouts Inc. shows they have no idea what's going on.

Ian O'Connor thinks #18 is about to go off.

The Football Scientist recognizes that this game is a totally different animal from the November one. He also has nice things to say about AG.

Don Banks has picked up on this year's sign of the Apocalypse-talk of a Manning Bowl.

CHFF says the Colts can beat the Pats. They also say the Pats don't need to run to win...I agree, sort of. The Pats plan to go pass crazy is either the best or the worst strategy in history. If they get ok weather, IT WON'T MATTER if they can run or not. If the wind and elements pick up, they'll rue the day they decided to build an offense out of 50 yard lob passes to the greatest weapon in football history (when he wants to be). All of the CHFF analysis has avoided that fact. They assume that NE will be physically able to pass the ball with the same ease that they did in October and September. The Pats played a couple of bad weather games this year, and struggled against horrible teams. If they get a bad weather game against a good team, we may find out that Belichick not only wasn't the coach of the year, he was the fool of the year. The Hooded One took a huge gamble building his offense like he did. I'm still betting it bites him in the end. If it doesn't, they'll go down as the unquestioned greatest team ever.

Jeremy Green is talking. I bet you money he's wrong. Why? I don't know, I just always assume that Jeremy Green is wrong.

3 comments:

Jacob Burch said...

saturday and sanders round off the colts award season by making the all-pro team.
i have to imagine that wayne ranked right behind TO.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/01/09/all.pros.ap/index.html

Deshawn Zombie said...

This is a big boon to Saturday's HoF chances. I'd say that one more Super Bowl win would assure him of a spot. Two more and he's a lock. All-Pro Teams are tough to make, and a much better barometer than Pro Bowls (which come down to reputation far more often.

Demond Sanders said...

There are quite a few current Colts whose HOF chances would spike with another SB win. Sanders and Saturday, not the least of these.

I still think Reggie Wayne may have the most to gain from another Super Bowl because of how competitive this era is for WRs. You have to compete for notoriety with guys like Torry Holt, TO, Moss, Steve Smith, Hines Ward, Chad Johnson, and not to mention his own teammate. Reggie isn't a self promoter so he really needs another big-stage moment to separate himself.