After listening to national and local radio stations for the past three days, there are few stories I think the media needs to drop.
First, and this is just the local Pittsburgh media, is the Jeff Reed not making a tackle on special teams again. Reed is a kicker, he is not supposed to make tackles. Why are fans and radio hosts focusing on the one guy on the field that does not practice tackling players in the open field?
Reed's effort on Sunday to take down the Cincinnati Bengals' return man looked pretty weak. He just cut in front of the guy to force the returner back to the middle of the field. That is a kicker's job. Force the return man away from the sidelines and try to slow him down. Now, Reed didn't do a very good job of slowing the runner down, but neither did the other 10 Steelers on the field.
To focus on Reed is ridiculous and Steeler fans need to stop calling radio stations and ask what hosts think of his tackling skills.
The second story is the whole Bill Belichick going for it on 4-and-2 from his own 28-yard line with a about 2 minutes left in the Sunday night game against the Indianapolis Colts. If you missed it, the Patriots didn't get the first down and the Colts capitalized with the game winning touchdown with less than 20 seconds left.
Since that play, every coach in the league, and in college or in a studio, have been asked if they agree with the decision. Would this story last more than a day if it was Ken Whisenhunt or Lovie Smith?
How many of us have been in this same situation in Madden and done the same thing? Belichick trusted his offense of Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Randy Moss to get the first down. It's just Brady made a bad read and hit the wrong guy. Look at the replay and you'll see Welker was wide open over the middle and well past the first down.
The most bothersome thing about all the coverage is that the attention the call is getting is overshadowing a great game. A 35-34, down to the wire New England-Indianapolis game is taking a backseat to one play. It's a shame.
On a side note, I love that the Patriots lost. Mostly because it upsets B ill Simmons, who still had to drop in that the refs were giving the Colts all the calls.
Tenacious D - Wonderboy
Simmons is a horse's ass. Even if the Colts got all the calls (which I dispute), the Pats still had a chance to win the game at the end of the day and their defense didn't get the job done and on top of the 4th down play they had very questionable clock management on that last drive. The Pats are a team on the way down. That defense is incredibly shaky, doesn't seem to get a pass rush anymore-its almost like Bellichick thinks he has such a superior offense he doesn't bother to scheme defensively for teams anymore. They have no running game to speak of. They will likely win the division by default, but I would rank them as the 5th best team in the AFC behind the Colts, Bengals, Chargers and Steelers.
ReplyDeleteI think the Jeff Reed stuff is three-fold: he is a drunken asshole, people don't want to blame Tomlin for anything, and the average Stiller fan (including me) has no idea who the special teams coach is. Coverage needs to get better, not that it can get much worse. Still not nearly as frustrating as watching PSU muff FOUR punts against Indiana.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to strongly disagree with you on the second topic though. You mentioned that if it were anyone else it wouldn't have been as big of a deal. Obviously that is true but we're talking about a coach that has had a dynasty with a 6th rounder at QB and a veteran linebacker catching touchdowns. More impressively, he almost turned the Browns into a winning team.
This is a big story because Bellichick revolutionized coaching. He has never done anything the prototypical way and it stands out. What also stands out is him going for it in that situation when every other coach in the NFL would have punted.
There is a high school football coach in Arkansas named Kevin Kelley that has only punted once in the past two years. This coach won a state championship last year and is in the hunt this year as well. He has figured out that punting on fourth and long near your own end zone decreases the odds of the other team scoring by a very small amount. Similarly, statisticians have claimed that Bellichick gave his team a 79% chance of winning by going for it (no matter what the result of the fourth and two), and a 70% chance of winning by punting. Obviously human elements play a big role, but you have to consider this information when making a decision.
If you think about it, this is a similar situation to when that coach (can't think of his name) chose to play defense in overtime in the NFL...just that was really stupid.
Greg, your thinking of Marty Morniegwig when he was with the Lions. I think he is the Eagles offensive coordinator now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Boss. I looked him up and he actually called plays for the Eagles in the second half of 2006 and all of 2007. I had no idea Reid gave that job to anyone during his coaching tenure.
ReplyDeleteNo picks this week? I'm sad.
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