Category: Uncategorized

Jason LaCanfora: “It’s Only Going to Get Worse.”

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone but Broncos’ fans, blinded by childlike enthusiasm for their team, who doesn’t believe that to be true.

As LaCanfora writes http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/25345119/inside-football-as-bad-as-peyton-is-now-its-only-going-to-get-worse:

But if you strip away the fact that this team is still winning games — I think most smart football fans long ago figured out that quarterback wins/losses is an absurd stat — and the fact that it says Manning on the back of his jersey and simply assess the body of work for a highly paid franchise quarterback on a team in Super Bowl-or-bust mode, the only conclusion would be this: The Broncos have a big quarterback problem.

There is no easy fix here. The idea that the shotgun would save Manning has been debunked. He’s one of the worst shotgun passers in the league. Even screen passes have the potential for great misadventure for Manning at this stage, and even with a plethora of gifted weapons he can rarely deliver the ball in a position to tap into much of what they can do.

He cannot make things happen on balls that travel more than 20 yards downfield. He leads the NFL with 10 interceptions and has become one of the more likely pick-six candidates from week to week, especially on anything thrown to the sideline. He’s looked every bit as bad as his quarterback rating of 72.5 would suggest.

Continue reading Jason LaCanfora: “It’s Only Going to Get Worse.”

The NFL Should Create A Personalized Uniform Space

Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward is not going to be deterred by the NFL’s fine police.  For the second straight week, Heyward adorned his eyeblack with the words Iron and Head, honoring his father who died of cancer.  Per Mike Pereira, this will cost him $11,576.  Heyward’s personalization comes off the heels of his teammate, running back DeAngelo Williams, being denied a request to wear pink all season to honor his mother who died of breast cancer.

And since this wouldn’t be the NFL without some inconsistency, Williams’s pink-tinged hair ends up being OK.  More strikingly, I’m trying to understand how Heyward and Williams can face fines, but Ronnie Hillman can continually get away with his unique and intimidating mouthpieces (which are also breast cancer aware in October!).

Instead of making clumsy attempts of suppressing the personality of players on game day, I feel that the NFL should instead create a uniform (pun intended!) standard to allow players to express a little bit of themselves in their most public moments.  The league should create a small space somewhere on the uniform to allow personal messages.

Continue reading The NFL Should Create A Personalized Uniform Space

Balance, Compromise, or Koobs v. Manning

We’ve talked all season about needing to protect Manning and the ability to run the football. Against the Browns, the offensive line didn’t give up a single sack, allowed only two QB hits and plowed the way for 150 yards rushing (though strangely [EDIT: only Evan Mathis] graded positively, per PFF).

So why is everyone so unhappy?

Continue reading Balance, Compromise, or Koobs v. Manning

LOLColts

Tonight’s Patriots-Colts game featured probably the most laughably bad play anyone has seen in the NFL in the last decade, if not longer.

The Colts tried a gadget play on fourth down, seemingly in an attempt to draw the Patriots offsides, and two guys were left alone against five Patriots.

However, the Colts snapped the ball when they weren’t supposed to and, of course, the Patriots got the tackle. On top of that, the Colts were called for illegal formation, which the Patriots declined and got the ball in great field position.

Here’s Chris Burke with the screen shot.

The Patriots scored several plays later to go up 34-21.

Care to weigh in, Chris Harris?

Yeah, that sums it up. LOLColts.

Quick Broncos-Browns Game Stuff From Twitter

I don’t have any particular thoughts about the game because I had to listen to it on KOA, but here are a few tweets worth sharing.

* Shaq Barrett had quite a day.


Continue reading Quick Broncos-Browns Game Stuff From Twitter

Fun With Streaks, Cleveland Browns Edition

There are a few streaks regarding the Broncos that I always keep in mind.  The proudest ones, of course, regard shutouts: the Broncos have never been shut out at home, and haven’t been shut out period since 1992, by far the longest active streak.  For a while, I had also observed that the Broncos had never lost to the Cardinals–until 2010 (Josh McDaniels, you are not missed).

But for this week, it’s all about the Broncos’ historical dominance over the Browns.

Continue reading Fun With Streaks, Cleveland Browns Edition

Nevada Rules Daily Fantasy Is Gambling

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody who has discussed the subject here.

Nevada is just a single (small) state, and daily fantasy sites will still make gobs of money without it. But Nevada certainly wields outsized influence in matters of gambling, and this is an especially unwelcome time for this ruling considering that both the FBI and the Department of Justice have opened probes into the legality of daily fantasy.

As some might say, we’ve only just begun.