Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Why the Pats will win on Saturday.

Two simple little words: Del Rio. Thanks to friend of 18to88.com, Ryan Parker for making the issue crystal clear. The great thing about Jack is that we have no idea if he's serious or just making fun of him. Could be either. Classic. Thanks to Dave N for the link. Nice catch man.

Oh, and just to make it a mortal lock, the Jags also have Jeremy Green on their side. Yikes. Sorry kitties!

Demond Sanders: Okay, at first I was thinking this was kind of a weird effort from Mr. Parker. It was so hard to tell if he was serious or not. There's no blatant mockery of Del Rio, other than perhaps the shot of him on a ship's bow. No mention of axes or video replay. But you are right: it's very simple. He predicts Jack Del Rio will be coaching in the Super Bowl. This is such a hilariously impossible concept that the song can only be considered parody at its finest.

11 comments:

Bob M. said...

Balancing out the Jeremy Green lovefest for the Jags (did he really say Del Rio is one the the NFL's best coaches?) is ESPN.com's Michael Smith's comment that he "just likes Indy in Foxboro." Wow, until today my impression of him was a very pro-Pats kind of reporter. I hate agreeing with his article. I hope we are not cursed.

Joel said...

My favorite part is the scene with Jack pulling out the challenge flag...undoubtedly about to waste another timeout.

Bob M. said...

Let's see if I can paraphrase the immortal Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club: You have to get a license to drive a car, but they let any idiot be a head coach.

Actually, I don't think he's that bad. But certainly fun to ridicule (until he caves in the back of my skull with his elbow).

Unknown said...

Michael Smith is a BIG fan of Tony Dungy, based on reading ESPN stuff in the past.

Anonymous said...

I've been knocking this around in my head: Should we just kick all our punts out of bounds this weekend? Shouldn't we let Phil Rivers beat us instead of the kick returners?

I hate to just give up on defending returns, but I don't even want to mess with it.

Am I just worrying about nothing?

Bob M. said...

Ian,
Welcome to my brain for the past few years! I have no real idea how to actually FIX the problem, but dealing with it on the fly by punting to the sideline sounds good to me. Kickoffs too...? that's giving up pretty good field position if you kick OB--you might as well try a 25-yard squibber that's half on-sides and maybe get the ball back 1/5 of the time rather than kicking off OB.

I think we have enough slack in this game that we can afford one return TD--so until they do it, kick away and cover the best you can. Last year in the SB, we learned the lesson in 10 seconds and still did fine. If we gave up only ONE return for a TD in Week 10we'd likely have won.

Got Dungy's book for x-mas and interestingly he notes specifically the decision to kick off to Bethel Johnson just before halftime in 2003 against the Pats and to Hester last year as the dumbest moves he's ever made in coaching--but he learned, he said, and kicked away from Hester the rest of the SB.

Darrell Reid is looking good, plus the fact that we blanked Houston's return game in Week 16 and they got 2 KO return TDs the next week makes me say "kick like any normal team would to start." If they burn us once, then we deal with it. We won't have any breathing room should we face the Pats, so this will come up again. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Michael Smith was a Boston Globe journalist for about five years before he went full time with ESPN.

Of course he was a pro-pats reporter.

Anonymous said...

Bob,
I actually just read Dungy's book too and one of his keys to victory is "Good special teams." I wonder why one of his top priorities has been such an unmitigated disaster for us over the last few years.

I'd like to see us play kick-offs like normal but try to push the punts out of bounds.

At this rate, the Colts may need to be the first team in NFL history to spend their first three draft picks on defensive special teams player.

Bob M. said...

Ian,
I think you misread TD's book. In my copy, it says "goof special teams" with an "f" and not a "d."

I like your draft strategy--Hey, why not? They can probably draft for needs with no major holes to fill. Well, unless the whole ST unit is considered a major hole. And no 1st rounder, so that works out okay too, since it's a bit of a stretch to draft one of these guys at 32. Start with a decent 6-0/210 strong safety for depth, then task him with being a ST god--the Bob Sanders of coverage units. He'd only play safety if we're really hurting, so he can concentrate 99% on kick coverage techniques, film, etc. And with Sanders' history, we'll need competent backup eventually. Much as I like Hunter Smith, we need higher punts with more hang time--even shorter ones would be okay, so long as our guys can cover then in time. I'd be giddy with a 33 yard net, about 5 yards less than today, if it means ZERO 30+ yard returns. Smith IS good at avoiding touchbacks, however....

Wow, that Del Rio song was a true work of Yankovician art--almost rivals Weird Al's American Pie/Star Wars parody. Brought back 1983 to me like it was yesterday. And that guy sure has a lot of different coach clothes. The anti-Belichick, sartorially speaking.

Anonymous said...

Bob,
Interestingly enough there's an article in the Star about Dungy making some changes to our special teams. Hopefully he's got some tricks up his sleeve.

That video is pretty great. I bet Del Rio is a Duran Duran fan.

Anonymous said...

I have said this all week, and I think I even told Joel this: The only reason the Jags will lose is because of Jack. If they had a different coach, they would scare me to really challenge the Colts for the South title.

Joel once said they should just start out the Jags with 2 timeouts a half and no challenges. It would basically be the same as what they have every game. I totally agree with Joel on this.