The NBA is Coming to Town

It's that time again. The time where people care about the NBA for about a month, couldn't care it existed for 3 months, and then cared again for most of the playoffs.

It is a season that has already had it's share of collusion, free-agent acquisitions, the creation of "Lob City," a pissed off but incredibly entertaining Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard flip-flopping more than Mitt Romney about wanting to leave Orlando, people being amnestied because of their dumb contracts, people that should be amnestied because of their dumb contract aka Metta World "I'm Happy Jesus Gave Me the Ability to Have Teeth" Peace, and because of all of this mess the Miami Heat are now slightly flying under the radar if that was possible.

I'm tired of hearing talking heads debate about this season in the same fashion. I'm bored of it. It's all the same stuff being regurgitated in various forms.

So to counter this I think it's time for a quick and painless bullet-pointed preview intertwined with some non-NBA points to spice it up a little.

• The Timberwolves will be a scary team this year. Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Wesley Johnson, Ricky Rubio, and Darko with Derrick Williams coming off the bench? Not such a bad starting lineup as you would first think especially with this gauntlet-like 66 game schedule. Definitely a team to watch out for.
• The same goes for the Washington Wizards. They now have the best uniforms in the league, a top 5 point guard in John Wall, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Rashard Lewis (who I think could still produce well), and the future first white player to win a Slam Dunk contest since Brent Barry, Jan Vesely.
• In contrast, the Toronto Raptors should just be given the first pick in the draft now out of sheer pity
• If you haven't seen "Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows" yet I highly recommend it. Better than the first one and Guy Ritchie makes this movie a visual masterpiece.
• The Lakers bandwagon has contracted yellow fever or dysentery as if they were the wagon in The Oregon Trail
• The small forwards on the Lakers roster are Matt Barnes, Metta World Peace, Luke "I Get Paid $5.6 Million Dollars To Inbound the Ball" Walton, Jason Kapono, and Devin Ebanks. Their point guards are Derek Fisher, Steve Blake, and Darius Morris. I wish I was making this up.
• So I was watching "The Shining" the other night and one scene caught my full attention and I said to myself, "Holy shit that's David Stern talking!" Let me explain. Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is chasing his wife up the staircase when he says these lines, "Have you ever thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought for a single moment. . .about my responsibilities to my employers? Does it matter to you at all. . .that the owners have placed their complete confidence in me. . .and that I have signed a letter of agreement. . .in which I've accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea. . .what a moral and ethical principal is? Do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future. . .if I fail to live up to my responsibilities?" Sends shivers down your spine doesn't it?
• The Thunder are +500 to win the championship
• The Clippers are +1500 to win the championship
• Those are two bets that I would take immediately.
• The NBA is a-changin'. The powerhouses of the last couple years (Lakers, Spurs, Celtics) are starting to be replaced by teams with much younger players and talent. It's not going to be a nice next 5 years for those 3 teams.
• At least one of those 3 teams will be in the lottery.
• If you are a germaphobe, do not see "Contagion."
• What is Fox trying to accomplish with making Napoleon Dynamite into a TV series? The movie came out in 2004. No good will come out of this endeavor.
• Somehow on one fantasy basketball team I ended up with 3 Wizards (Wall, Young, Blatche) and on another team I have 3 Warriors (Steph Curry, Dorell Wright, and David Lee).
• As you can tell I'm high on the Wizards
• Dwight Howard will end up a Laker at some point, but the Lakers will give away both Gasol and Bynum to do so, which will be the final nail in the coffin for the Lakers for a couple of years.
• I still feel bad for the Houston Rockets after Tradegate.
• Christmas Day Predictions: New York over Boston, Miami over Dallas, Chicago over LA Lakers, Oklahoma City over Orlando, LA Clippers over Golden State
• Western Conference Finals: Oklahoma City over Los Angeles...Clippers
• Eastern Conference Finals: Miami over Chicago
• NBA Champion: Miami over Oklahoma City in 6 games
• David Stern will retire at the end of this year or next
• I may be wrong but I feel like the trade debacles with Chris Paul have been forgotten way too easily
• Phil Jackson will be coaching the Knicks by next year

The transfer of power in basketball will happen this year whether you like it or not. The players that we have come to love over the past decade-plus will be retiring soon and these up and coming teams will swoop in and claim their spot on top of the throne. This change will be the main story this year in the always maddening, always unpredictable, but always a topic of vigorous discussion, the NBA.

Merry Christmas, happy sixth night of Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa tomorrow, and happy belated best holiday ever invented, Festivus.

"CP3: WoW"

No, I am sorry to say this tweet from Chris Paul does not mean he is joining Chuck Norris and Mr. T to promote World of Warcraft. I am also sorry to say that this tweet just sent the NBA into a death spiral that I'm not sure they can fully recover from.

News broke on Twitter from Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski at around 7:00 PM EST on December 8 that Chris Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. ESPN's Marc Stein then reported that minutes later, Gasol would be traded to the Houston Rockets from the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, and 2 draft picks.


Being from LA, my first reaction was, "Oh my God, we just got one of the best point guards of all-time!" and then "Oh crap, Derrick Caracter is now the starting power forward with a center who has knee problems and did this the last time we saw him, a shooting guard who went to Germany to get some semi-illegal blood transfusion to help his knees, and point guard who had knee surgery. And Luke Walton is still on the team. This is not what I thought would happen..."


If I were a New Orleans fan this is how I would have reacted: "We just gave up our only superstar we have ever had, our life as a franchise is over...wait who did we get from Houston?! A very good low post player to go with Okafor and now Odom! A shooting guard that averaged 23.5 points per game last year! Two draft picks! THIS GUY! Shhh....don't tell anyone but we secretly got the best deal."


And lastly if I were a Rockets fan, "We are so f!*#ed."


A Twitgasm occurred. Everyone and their mother starting talking about not if the Lakers would win the championship this year, but how many they would win (kind of hypocritical if you ask me because all Laker fans were hating on LeBron for his "Not three, not four, not five" speech). Then Dwight Howard's name got thrown into the mix and the train kept on rolling. "Howard for Bynum" was brought up too many times to count, which would be the single worst trade for the Magic, but everyone was blinded by the shock of acquiring Chris Paul to take a step back to realize this. 


Then....BAM!!!!


The equivalent of the apocalypse happened.


Reports started to leak out that the NBA and David Stern vetoed the trade. 


I could not find the words in the situation to even formulate a sentence to express what my feelings were. We just went from a blockbuster trade that we knew was going to happen except for the where part, to "I think I am witnessing the downfall of an entire sports organization." 


First of all, let's just start with the Hornets themselves. How is it in any way shape or form ethical for all NBA owners, who own and have interests in their own teams, own and have power for another team? There isn't really an analogy to describe this scenario because it just never happens! The NBA put in GM Dell Demps in New Orleans to do what a general manager is supposed to do; make the team better. Because that is the goal of any professional sports team right? Not in the case of the NBA apparently. The Hornets got the best deal that they could possibly get for a guy that was going to leave them anyways at the end of the year and get nothing in return.


The owners of small-market teams threw bitch fits to Stern complaining about losing another superstar to a big market, especially Dan Gilbert, who's email to Stern has now gone public. Hey Dan, you mad bro? Don't be so sour because you own an NBA team that resides in a city that no basketball player wants to play for and live in. Remember, you still own a frickin' NBA team! 


So Stern decided to side with these owners and veto the trade "for basketball reasons." You just had the best season in recent memory and this would have made this season that much better even after everyone already forgot about the lockout. But no. This is MUCH worse than the lockout in my opinion and I don't think it's close. The lockout was about a business and it's money, which even though seemed bad, is defensible. What this veto is though is an unethical act of corruption and collusion, factors that you can never defend to the public. You cannot save face after this unless the deal goes through to the Lakers. If it doesn't? Then Paul cannot be traded to another team or else the NBA just wants to implode on itself.


So yes Chris, "WoW" should be your response to your unfortunate situation. But not because you will not be joining Kobe in sunny California. It should be your response because the NBA will never be viewed as a legitimate organization again.

December 4, 2011: Just Another Day in Sports

Where do I even begin to write?

Do I start with the clusterf**k that is the BCS and Heisman Trophy race? What about Aaron Rodgers and my man-love for Tim Tebow? Or the fact that something interesting actually happened in the PGA and MLB? I think it would be a crime against humanity if I did not start with college football first, so here we go...

The BCS
Here we are again. It seems that almost every year since the BCS's inception we are at the point where we are at now. A deserving team doesn't get into the National Championship game, a team has no clue how it made it to a BCS game, a team has no clue how it didn't make it to a BCS game, coaches continue to accept "the system", etc. It's like an Adam Sandler movie. You know that it's going to happen once a year and you know that you're not going to enjoy it.

Beginning with the National Championship game, obviously LSU was in because of their SEC Championship victory over Georgia. But people were saying before the game that it was just a formality and an exhibition game and they were in no matter the result. So if that happened, it would have been LSU-Bama in the championship with no team winning their own conference? In what reasonable world does that make any sense. Speaking of not making sense in a reasonable world ESPN put up this nugget during their BCS Selection Show.

The ranked teams that Alabama beat were Penn State (22) who has shown its  shortcomings of late, a pretty good Arkansas team (6), and Auburn (25) who hasn't been relevant once this year. Oklahoma State beat Texas (24), Baylor (12) and possible Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III (we will visit this later), Kansas State (8), and ended the season with an absolute pillaging of Oklahoma (14) on national television. Oh and Oklahoma State also beat another 3 teams that were .500 or better to put the icing on the cake. But no that wasn't enough to put them ahead of Alabama. The current National Championship game is equivalent to a rerun of a recent Family Guy episode. We weren't happy with how it turned out the first time, why do I want to sit in pain and watch it again? (Sidenote: Step up your game McFarlane. South Park has officially made you obsolete.) Forget about Oklahoma State getting the shaft. What about Boise State? There is no chance that Virginia Tech who was physically assaulted by Clemson for the second time this year gets a BCS bid over the Smurf Turfers. Two fun facts of the day for you before my head explodes from this incompetence; former SEC Commissioner and Harris Poll voter put 5 SEC teams in his top 11 and 80 year old George Wine, another Harris Poll voter, ranked Oklahoma State 6th behind Houston at 5.

Heisman
So much for my head not exploding. I thought I was done yelling at my computer while in the library when ESPN put up their projected Heisman finalists based on their voters and "experts."

RG3 should win the Heisman and in reality it shouldn't be that close at all. No problem with that at all. But then I looked who was below RG3. Listen, I am all in the bandwagon that Andrew Luck will be a super-duper star in the NFL. But he really didn't show me a whole bunch this year that made me say, "Woah!" The same goes with Trent Richardson. He did very well against teams he was suppose to run over and only had 89 yards and no touchdowns against their best opponent: LSU. To win the Heisman he needed to rush for 100+ and 2 TDs. Didn't happen.

And that is why Montee Ball should finish second and Tyrann Mathieu should finish third. Ball led the NCAA in rushing with 1759 yards, had 6.4 yards per carry and scored 38 total touchdowns. Let me say that one more time so you know that is not a typo. Montee Ball scored 38 touchdowns this year. For Wisconsin. Who is a top 10 team. Who is playing in the Rose Bowl. I'll let you digest that for a second. (You ready now or is your head still spinning?) He did not score less than 2 touchdowns in any game this season. He is 2 touchdowns away from breaking Barry Sanders' all-time record for touchdowns in a season. (Raises hand) So how is he FIFTH, not even fourth or even third, but FIFTH in the Heisman race? Like a Tootsie Pop the world may never now...

The reason for Mathieu is simple; he's the best player on the best team. It started the first game of the year against then #3 Oregon in Jerry's World. He pulled off the defensive trifecta (forced fumble, fumble recovery, touchdown) en route to victory. Against #3 Arkansas, after LSU was down 14-0, Mathieu returned a 92 punt for a touchdown, forced 2 fumbles, and had 8 tackles. He also threw in a 62 punt return for a touchdown for good mesure in the SEC Championship after LSU finished the first quarter down 10-0 to Georgia. Yes he was suspended for one game. But that does not take away from the fact that he is the best defensive and special teams player in college football on the best defensive and special teams team in college football. One last reason: because Honey Badger said so!


NFL
On to another topic that makes people's head spin Exorcist-style: Tim Tebow. I feel like Skip Bayless and I are the only two people on Earth that like what is happening here. He is now 6-1 in actual NFL games that count this season and has thrown one interception this year. That now puts his interceptions  per pass attempt at 0.6% which is actually half of what Aaron Rodgers is currently at. I know what you are thinking right now. It's probably something like, "Who is this idiot who is trying his best to make Tebow look better than the quarterback who is having the greatest season ever?"I'm not so just stop the nonsense. Rodgers needs to replace Albert Pujols in that "This is SportsCenter" commerical. Tebow needs to replace "The Most Interesting Man in the World" guy. Not a day goes by where something is either written or said about him in some format. And you know what?

I love it.

Never has someone been as polarizing and confusing as he has been. I watched just about every game he started while at Florida. I saw how those guys always believed that when it mattered most, he was going to carry them to the Promise Land (religious pun intended). I don't care that he throws 12 times a game. I don't care that they run a "college" offense. Go look at some Cam Newton highlights and tell me you don't see speed options and read options. I dare you. I double dog dare you! People are mad and angry and puzzled because it is simply different. That's all. Who made the rule that you can't take what you have and make an offense that works for that player? That would just make too much sense.

I can see it now. Robert Griffin III gets drafted in the top 10 and the coach tries to put him under center and run a "pro" offense. He will be benched halfway through the year for not performing in the system. Question. You drafted him because he excelled in the "spread" offense correct? So you make him become a pro-style quarterback because....? This is how I view 90% of NFL coaches.

Tiger (because that's essentially what the PGA should be called)
Golf poked its head in the spotlight for all of 5 seconds on Sunday when Tiger Woods won his first tournament in 2 years. I only knew about this because it started trending on Twitter. And then it stopped trending and that was the end of it. Sorry but unless its a major event no one really cares. It was buried so deep in SportsCenter that night that I needed that Chilean mine contraption to get it out. Good for him for showing us that he still has a little left in the tank but how dare he impeded us from more of "The Blitz."

Mets
And last (again, and again, and again...) but not least is the first major move of the MLB off-season when Mets star shortstop José Reyes ditched the Mets for the Miami Marlins at a tune of six years and $106 million. Everyone is asking how this big move will shake up the baseball landscape. Pump the brakes (unlike Ndamukong Suh). Say "hi" to the Philadelphia Phillies. Sources say that the Phillies are still in the NL East. The Marlins are playing for second place. If they somehow land Pujols as well, then it will get a little interesting. But nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, they do will make up for this Fisher-Price toy of a homerun display. And as for Mets fans, well, you already know what's coming.

The Redemption Game

"Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile."-Vince Lombardi


A leader was made in this game, and his name is Aaron Rodgers. I have to admit, I underestimated his abilities going into this game. He beat an overrated Atlanta Falcons team as well as the Chicago Bears who, being led by Jay Cutler, it was no surprise that the Packers took care of business. Going into this game and even up to the kickoff I was continually asking myself and my peers, "Why are the Packers favored by 3 points against an extremely experienced Steeler team captained by one of the best playoff quarterbacks of all-time?" The answer: Aaron Rodgers.


The experience of the Steelers never came to any fruition like I thought they would. They had 29 players on their roster with past Super Bowl experience; the Packers had none. The stats were relatively balanced between the two teams regarding first downs (Pitt 19, GB 15), 3rd Down efficiency (Pitt 7-13, GB 6-13), and even penalties (Pitt 6, GB 7). They both basically attempted and completed the same amount of passes and the Steelers out-gained the Packers on the ground 126-50. So what stopped the Steelers from winning their 3rd Super Bowl since 2006? Turnovers (and the combination of Christina Aguilera's remix of the Star-Spangled Banner and whatever that the Black Eyed Peas did at halftime). The first turnover, the pick-six by Nick Collins, looked like it had put the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Steelers as the team that has thrown a pick-six in the Super Bowl has never won (now 0-11). I believe however the biggest turnover was the Rashard Mendenhall fumble on the first play of the 4th quarter. Pittsburgh was ready to deliver the final blow but instead Mendenhall fumbles, the Steelers lose all sense of the momentum the had by coming back to only a 4 point deficit, and it seemed like the fat lady was only minutes if not seconds away from making her appearance. But as they always say, "The fat lady doesn't sing until the winning players are celebrating rather awkwardly on the sideline." 


Big Ben almost put the team on his back and drove his team down on another epic Super Bowl winning final drive after the inexplicable 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty, but it's hard to throw a pass when your hands are around your neck. The list of receivers targeted on that drive were Heath Miller for 15 yards (Wait...Heath Miller played?), Hines Ward for 5 yards, throw away, confusion on incomplete pass to Mike Wallace, and lastly a high throw to Mike Wallace. First off I was waiting for Gus Johnson to randomly pop into the booth and say "Mighty Mouse Hines Ward...with the reception!" Secondly haven't all of us figured out that Mike Wallace can only do one thing and one thing only, which is "Run deep and I'll throw the ball as far as I can, except for when I overthrow you or throw a duck to you in the Super Bowl." So why would Ben throw the ball to Wallace in traffic, who is about as worthless as Charlie Sheen's digestive tract who collectively at this point are just saying "F**k it, this guy is out of control, it's not worth the effort." Why not go back to Hines Ward or try and let Heath Miller know that "There is a game going on, you should really be involved"? These are the questions that need to be answered soon.


So at this point your probably wondering "Why is this column named The Redemption Game?" Well I'm glad you thought of it. This game had many story lines that were in play waaaaaay before the fly-over at the end of the National Anthem over a domed stadium (Can we get a round of applause for the NFL please! Also not their last screw up of the night...). The alleged rape of a girl in a bathroom by Ben Roethlisberger highlighted the sports media conversation leading up to the game. But instead of a rapist, accused on two separate cases I recall, winning the Lombardi Trophy, it was the team that Lombardi turned into a household name and put the town of Green Bay on the map (Let it be known that the entire population of Green Bay could have fit inside the stadium with a couple thousand seats to spare). 


Aaron Rodgers, who was drafted to replace The Anointed One, The Traitor, Is He Still Playing, and my favorite, That's Not Mine, finally gained the complete acceptance as a leader and champion, league-wide. 


Charles Woodson, winner of the Heisman Trophy, NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, NFL Defensive Player of the Year, has finally added a Super Bowl ring to the list. Remember Woodson was the player that hit Tom Brady and created the Tuck Rule in the 2002 AFC Divisional Playoff game. Thank you NFL gods for prying Woodson from the cold, dead hands of Al Davis. Seriously, check out this video and try and argue that Davis is alive. Woodson shattered his collarbone on a touchdown saving pass deflection and played the next play! If that and the emotion he showed at halftime isn't deserving of a Super Bowl win, I don't know what will ever qualify.


Clay Matthews III finally wins a Championship for the Matthews NFL family dynasty. Clay Jr., his father, played linebacker for the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons for 19 years. He also holds the NFL record for oldest player to record a sack at 40 years, 282 days. His father, Clay Sr., played offensive tackle and linebacker for the San Fransisco 49ers from 1950, 1953-55 with a 3 year stint in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in which he served as a paratrooper in the Korean War. If those two weren't enough Clay III's uncle was Bruce Matthews, a 19 year veteran, a Hall of Famer, 14-time Pro Bowler, a member of the 1990's NFL All-Decade Team, and the record holder of most games played by an offensive lineman in NFL history (296). Out of all of that past experience Clay III, in only his second year in the league, did what his family members couldn't do in a combined 42 years.


That was all of the good that Super Bowl XLV had to offer...these were the other interesting/bad notes that I observed:

• Brett Favre was not mentioned ONCE during the entire game
• Where was James Harrison and Troy Polamalu when the Steelers needed them most?
• Jordy Nelson's 140 yard performance puts him in 10th place for receiving yards in a Super Bowl
• Ryan Clark guards wide receivers one-on-one worse than the Nazi guards in "Hogan's Heroes". (If you have no idea what that show is because it was aired from 1965-71 and you think you are too young to watch anything before 1992 go and watch it. Now! You will thank me later.)
• The combination of the seat fiasco, National Anthem, fly-over, and the halftime show really put a damper on a fantastic game. First let's start with the seats. A fire marshal ordered that 1,250 temporary seats had to be removed because they weren't approved by him. There's something about that that just doesn't sound right. My guess; someone from the NFL really messes up and the seats were never installed. The NFL gave the fans triple the face value (important detail) of their ticket. Most fans paid triple the face value from scalpers to get the ticket. Also, the NFL made the right decision today to give these poor fans free tickets to ANY Super Bowl of their choice.
• As for the fly-over over a stadium where the fans attending the game couldn't see the fly-over (whose idea?), Christina Aguilera's combination of lines because she was "too into it" (Child Please), and the absolute abomination of a halftime show that sounded more like someone yelling into a megaphone or in some cases had no noise at all. Yikes. I honestly can't remember who performed at what Super Bowl since Nipple Gate. I propose the fans vote for who should perform because the NFL has completely lost touch with society as a whole regarding entertainment, not to mention how many games the players should play (I'll save that topic for when the deadline nears).

Well I guess that's the last game of football we will see for awhile and possibly awhile more than we think. The season was highlighted by concussions, fines, a male appendage, multiple rape charges, the first sub-.500 team to make the playoffs, an extremely productive rookie class, Philip Rivers being mentioned in the same sentence as Dan Marino (shakes head in disbelief), Trip Gate, a barely publicized Trip Gate Part Duex, one of the best "Hard Knocks" seasons to date, and more concussions. Let's do it all again next year.

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NFL Divisional Playoff Roundup

Well, so much for two number 1 seeds playing each other in the Super Bowl.

The Atlanta Falcons were physically abused by the Green Bay Packers, arguably the best 6 seed in NFL playoff history; the New England Patriots squandered every scoring opportunity they possibly could against the 8.5 point underdog New York Jets; the Chicago Bears took care of business against the Seattle Seahawks; and the Pittsburgh Steelers capitalized on 2nd half errors to put away the Baltimore Ravens.

So what exactly did we learn this past weekend?

That Aaron Rodgers is (if he wasn't already) one of the top 3 or 4 quarterbacks in the NFL; that "Matty Ice" needs to actually win a playoff game before anyone can refer to him as that again; that Mark Sanchez has a better QB Rating (94.3) in his last 3 playoff games than Tom Brady (73.5); that Jay Cutler might have actually figured out how to win; and that the Seahawks just need to be thankful they got this far.

Starting with the Packer-Falcon game: Donald Driver is the ageless wonder. He takes such a beating every game by going over the middle even though he was born in the year the first Jaws was released (I'll save you the work. It was in 1975). And you forget that Green Bay was actually losing 0-7 and later 7-14. Can we also get a collective "C'Mon Man" for John Abraham after mimicking Aaron Rodgers's touchdown celebration after sacking him at the start of the 2nd half? Your losing by 2 touchdowns. Pump the brakes.

Speaking of breaks how many times will Mr. "Let-Me--Yell-At-My-Team-Then-Whip-My-Hair" squander a playoff game he's supposed to win? As I was watching this game with some friends eating way too many terrible peanuts to count, I was wondering when Mark Sanchez would pull a Mark Sanchez by either fumbling a snap inside their own 30 yard line or throwing a pass into double coverage after escaping the rush. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting...but it shockingly never happened. What this game proves is that it doesn't matter how many yards you get, it doesn't matter how many first downs you get, it doesn't even matter if you had the ball longer. How To Win A Playoff Game 101 goes as follows: turn the ball over least (Jets 0, Pats 1), and convert and get the most red zone opportunities (Jets 4-5, Pats 2-4). Game. Set. Match. Also on a completely unrelated note I could have sworn some one took off their shoes in the endzone after Shonn Greene scored the last Jets touchdown because I have never seen Rex Ryan hobble that fast in my life. (That was too easy not to pass up). Now speaking of pulling a Mark Sanchez...

That has now been officially replaced by "he pulled a Joe Flacco." Winning 21-14 Flacco throws an inexplicable interception into double coverage while at his own 10 yard line. After Pittsburgh scores to even up the game, Flacco fumbles the ball on the second play of their possession on their own 23 yard line. That 2 minute stretch was as bad for the Ravens as the Golden Globes' decision to let Ricky Gervais host the show for a second time. We all knew both were going to happen at some point, just not exactly sure when.  So let's see how the Ravens lost this game using my How To Win A Playoff Game Theory: don;t turn the ball over (Baltimore had 3 to Pittsburgh's 2) and get in the red zone as many times as possible and convert (Baltimore lost 2-3 to 4-5). Now we have a alleged rapist playing against a coach with a foot fetish. I love the NFL.

Finally let's end with the utterly embarrassing Bears-Seahawks game. The score may read 35-24 but the Seahawks scored their last 14 points in garbage time. The one thing I noticed the Seahawks didn't have in this game that they did in their upset of the Saints: they didn't take the chances they did in the first game. Prime example. 1st quarter. Time to set the attitude for the rest of the game. Apparently not. Pete Carroll aka The Poodle decides to punt on 4th ad 1 on CHI 40. I could be crazy but I think if your a 10 point underdog on the road, everyone and their dog would go for it. What this situation proves is that each team should have at least 1 Madden video game expert on the coaching staff.


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Auburn vs. Oregon Quick Hits

Sorry for the delay in posting. Being a student it's hard to find time to do any creative, freelance work like this. So being that time is of the essence here are my initial reactions from the BCS National Championship Game.

• If you asked Chip Kelly before the game, "What are your odds of winning if your offense goes for a total of 449 yards?" I'm thinking at least a 90%. And they only scored 19 points. More on that later...
• Was I surprised that the game was that low scoring? Not at all. Taking the under of 73.5 was an easier bet than taking the over of how many Nicolas Cage movies could replace his previous movie as worst movie of all-time.
• Auburn on 3rd down: 9-17
• Oregon on 3rd down: 5-15
• Did Kenny Rowe take coverage lessons from Roman Harper? (If you do not get this reference, watch the highlights of the New Orleans Saints-Seattle Seahawks game. Watch any Seattle TD. #41 will be there somewhere.)
• Auburn rushing yards: 254
• Oregon rushing yards: 75
• Oregon rushing yards per game before Championship: 304
• Why did Oregon line up under center at their own goal line? I think that's the only time I've seen them do that all year. At least run to the outside AWAY from Nick Fairley. Fairley seemed like he was the girl that everyone knows they should stay away from but end up making moves with.
• Speaking of Fairley, he is a dirty player. Just ask LaMichael James's head.
• After a 43 yard pass down to the AUB 3 yard line to Lavasier Tuinei (try to find me a better name in college football) Oregon runs this set of plays: Kenjon Barner rush for loss of 3 yards, Darron Thomas rush for 1 yard, Kenjon Barner rush for 4 yards, Kenjon Barner rush for no gain TURNOVER ON DOWNS.
• Where is the Heisman runner-up in this series?
• Play That No One Noticed That May Have Decided The Game: 3rd Down and 12 for Auburn on their own 19 yard line. Play clock winds down...and then expires with no Delay of Game penalty. Cam Newton runs for 18 yards for the 1st Down, momentum swings toward Auburn, and they get field position.
• If Oregon ran one more screen pass or out pattern to the short side of the field I would've introduced whoever calls Oregon's plays to my two friends Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary.
• And finally The Play That Almost Wasn't. Of course I'm talking about Michael Dyer's 37 yard run where everyone on the field including him thought he was down. Just ask Arkansas tight end D.J. Williams about that ruling that his wrist WAS down and therefore negated his touchdown in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. Here's the link: D.J. Williams vs. Michael Dyer

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