My Random Musings on the '08 Season (1 Viewer)

[kd1]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

-It cracks me up that analysts can't stop calling the Cowboys "the most talented team in the league", even after yesterday.

-If I'm an NFL GM in need of a rb, i throw a big chunk of money at Jerious Norwood, and a slightly smaller chunk of money at Darren Sproles. I don't see why either would fail if given the bulk of the work (although i thought the same of Michael Bennett once upon a time)

-There is only one head coach in the NFL that makes a huge (positive) impact on games, and that is Bill Belichick. COY seems to be more of a johnny-come-lately award on average, but I give it to him in a landslide this season. MVP down, every significant player on defense down, QB who basically hadn't been in a real game since high school replacing Mr. World MVP, 11-5. simply stunning. i give the falcons exec of year easily, burner mvp, and Ryan potentially ROY, i give the fins a "wow" and a pat on the back, but COY to Belly.

-Staying on the subject, and i realize that this is contradictory, but how is pooch-kicking in the opponents territory on 3rd and 8 ever a smart move? is pinning the opponents down on the 1 really a better option than 1 free shot at a 1st down and then the opportunity to pin your opponent down at the 1? was a little too "let's get cute, i'm smarter than you" for me. seemed stupid. Belly trying to pull some shock value for not much good reason.

-I don't understand and will never understand how the hell the fins won 11 games and the division, but would bet my bottom dollar that neither of those happen next year. sorry for the disrespect fins fans, but i chalk it up to a complete fluke.

-I completely understand and have always understood why a Brett Favre-led team in the past 10 or so years completely crumbled whenever it counted. I never for one second bought into the Jets. Brett Favre is a sad, sad joke, and after yesterday, I am slightly turning from hating the delusional, ego maniacal fool, to pitying him and feeling sorry for him. He's eclipsing Evander Holyfield's fall from grace and desperate desire to hang on because he knows nothing else.

-It's waaaay way too early to even begin to bring the "B" word (bust) around Jamarcus Russell. He has had absolutely no weapons in the passing game in his couple years, and I'd almost call it impressive that he's had periodic stretches of success with that garbage around him. i'd give peyton manning maybe 3 more wins if he was the raiders qb the past 2 years. i'd like to see crabtree go there to give him a fighting chance.

-Replacing 2007's "pick 6" as the annoying, analysts-trying-to-be-cool phrase of the '08 season: "Portable Offense" or "Portable Defense". get over yourselves, idiots. Makes me cringe.

-The most under-appreciated and under-utilized wr's are on the same team. Derrick Mason for the former (guy still appears to be near the top of his game, and, by career's end, his #'s will be HOF-worthy), and Mark Clayton for the latter. I'm starting to doubt that it will ever come completely together for Clayton, but I don't understand what is preventing him from being a top 5 wr in the league (aside from his qb's the past few years). he seems to have all the tools necessary, but only flashes his brilliance in few and far between spurts.

-I don't know who takes his crown, but the days of Andre Johnson being the most underrated wr in the game seem to be over. Maybe "underrated" isn't the most fitting title anyway. Was more like, "the best player in the league who nobody outside the city of Houston understood how good he was". Kind of like Hakeem Olajuwon throughout his entire career.

-Steve Smith must have the highest vertical in the league. Heck, he must have the highest vertical out of all 3 major sports. How you repeatedly throw jump balls to a guy 5'9", and he comes down with them more than once in a lifetime, I'll never be able to wrap my mind around.

-I'm chalking Braylon Edwards '07 up to a fluke. 2nd Tier fantasy WR at best going forward in his career.

-Joe Flacco throws the prettiest ball since Warren Moon.

-Ben Roethlisberger may have put an end for the rest of eternity to playoff teams with nothing to play for in week 17 letting their stars see the field.

-I'd rather watch the Lions, or any other team in the league, 10 times out of 10 before I'd watch....The Washington Redskins. I feel for their fans. The most boring brand of "can't possibly contend or bring entertainment to it's viewers" football for going on at least 5 years now. You ask me to perennially rank the teams before the season starts in the order of their shot to win it all, I'm putting them 32nd with pen ink, and then I'll grab a pencil and put my thinking cap on to sort out the other 31.

-What makes Brad Childress think that Adrian Peterson doesn't know how to catch a football?

-I don't know how it's taken this long for a coach like him to arrive on the scene, but thank the lord John Harbaugh finally has. Why can't the game be fun? Why does everything have to be so "by the book"? Are trick plays really that amateur'ish and bush league? Why? Every head coach should be running at least a couple of gadget plays/game. Forget the fun aspect of it...it just seems smart. Have balls, people. Are you that worried that you'll look foolish to your peers if the plays go tails up? Good on ya, John. Hopefully, you've started a trend.

-Not sure if many of you have actually seen Tyler Thigpen play and have only seen his good fantasy stats, but he is an AWFUL nfl qb.

-I don't care how good he is...It's sickening how little Peyton has to do to get locked into winning the MVP. Though not as sickening as it is that Brett Favre automatically gets a Pro Bowl nod before the season starts...and doesn't even have the respect to attend the games.

-I can't imagine how miserable Broncos fans must be these days. Luckily, you have those two rings to fall back on, so I can't feel too bad for ya.

-There is still a very realistic possibility that golden child Tony Romo is an awful nfl qb (like brett and tyler). not good, not decent, but awful.

Playoff thoughts: The lowly Cards may have drawn the only playoff team that they can beat, but I don't think the Falcons are complaining either. I think the Titans are one and done, but I don't care....they can make it to the Superbowl, but i still put them in the bottom 4 of the 12 playoff teams in terms of chances of winning it. I'm going with the Manning-bowl, and boy would that be nuts, and cool, and appropriate. It's hard for me to bet against Peyton, since i still believe he's roughly 40 times better than his brother, but that Colts D just gets chewed up by the run, and can't get off the field. Seems like the Giants running game would be the buzz saw of all buzz saws for them to run into.

That's it for me for now. Was another great season in the league. It never fails to disappoint.

 

[chook]

Great stuff mate, a very entertaining read indeed.

 

[massraider]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

 

[Buffaloes]

-Joe Flacco throws the prettiest ball since Warren Moon.

 

[-OZ-]

-If I'm an NFL GM in need of a rb, i throw a big chunk of money at Jerious Norwood, and a slightly smaller chunk of money at Darren Sproles. I don't see why either would fail if given the bulk of the work (although i thought the same of Michael Bennett once upon a time)

If possible, I spend the cash and get Jacobs and Sproles - RBBC GOLD

 

[Englishteacher]

entertaining and thoughtful

 

[kd1]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

 

[massraider]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

Averaged 4 YPC this year, and 4.7 last year.

 

[GiantsRule]

I know these are your opinions, but you're WAY off base on Peyton Manning. "How little he has to do?" He essentially carried that team on his back for 8 straight weeks after it looked like they were going to experience a frankly embarrassing fall from grace. Not sure why you would think he just gets credit on name alone. There's not a more deserving MVP candidate this year.

Also, enough with the Belichick crotch washing (not just you, but the media and 99.9% of Patriots nation). He's not the Coach of the Year this season - far from it. Instead of looking at how the Patriots won 11 games with a backup QB, poor defense, and random running game, why not point to the fact that they had the easiest schedule in the history of the league and still struggled against some pretty mediocre teams? They should have lost to Seattle. They got embarrassed by Miami at home. They fell to the Jets at home when the same Favre you're crapping on passed all over the Pats and was the reason they won that game and took the division away from the Pats for good. They were thrashed by Pittsburgh (granted, a great team) and got manhandled by a San Diego team during the first half of the season when they were horrendous.

To say Belichick should come within double digit votes of Harbaugh, Mike Smith, or Sparano is incredibly short-sighted.

 

[Chachi]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

I did too and agree the Raiders played Fargas way too much, Fargas is not that good at all, he has heart... blah blah blah, the fact is both McFadden and Bush are easily better than Fargas, 2 yards and hardly ever a broken tackle.

 

[massraider]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

I did too and agree the Raiders played Fargas way too much, Fargas is not that good at all, he has heart... blah blah blah, the fact is both McFadden and Bush are easily better than Fargas, 2 yards and hardly ever a broken tackle.

I would guess he had more broken tackles in one game, than DMC did all year.

 

[Chachi]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

Averaged 4 YPC this year, and 4.7 last year.

The funny thing is you just owned yourself. Fargas 4YPC (Actually Fargas is at 3.9, but whose counting), McFadden AND Bush both at 4.4 YPC. Last time I checked 4.4 > 3.9McFadden 9.8 ypc, Bush 8.5 ypc, Fargas 5.2ypcBush 3 TD on 95 carriesMcFadden 4 TD on 113 carriesFargas 1 TD on 218 carriesPlease give me the statistical category where Fargas isn't the worst of the 3, thanks in advance.

 

[Chachi]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

I did too and agree the Raiders played Fargas way too much, Fargas is not that good at all, he has heart... blah blah blah, the fact is both McFadden and Bush are easily better than Fargas, 2 yards and hardly ever a broken tackle.

I would guess he had more broken tackles in one game, than DMC did all year.

This is funny, I see you have "raider" in your name. You obviously don't watch the games, McFadden and Bush both break alot more tackles than Fargas, Fargas never breaks tackles, he falls down constantly on first contact. Fargas is so valuable to the Raiders I am guessing he ends up getting cut this offseason.

 

[David Yudkin]

-Staying on the subject, and i realize that this is contradictory, but how is pooch-kicking in the opponents territory on 3rd and 8 ever a smart move? is pinning the opponents down on the 1 really a better option than 1 free shot at a 1st down and then the opportunity to pin your opponent down at the 1? was a little too "let's get cute, i'm smarter than you" for me. seemed stupid. Belly trying to pull some shock value for not much good reason.

Belichick explained this one. He felt that they were having problems throwing the ball and were likely not going to make the first down anyway. He also mentioned the Bills had almost blocked a couple punts already and did not want to risk giving up a blocked punt and possible easy return TD in a game where the defense was not giving up much of anything. With no pressing need to score more points, he felt that they could pin the Bills deep with no one back in punt coverage. BB said he remembered a very similar sintuation in a 1981 playoff game and that worked out very similar to what the Pats did yesterday.

 

[kd1]

I know these are your opinions, but you're WAY off base on Peyton Manning. "How little he has to do?" He essentially carried that team on his back for 8 straight weeks after it looked like they were going to experience a frankly embarrassing fall from grace. Not sure why you would think he just gets credit on name alone. There's not a more deserving MVP candidate this year.Also, enough with the Belichick crotch washing (not just you, but the media and 99.9% of Patriots nation). He's not the Coach of the Year this season - far from it. Instead of looking at how the Patriots won 11 games with a backup QB, poor defense, and random running game, why not point to the fact that they had the easiest schedule in the history of the league and still struggled against some pretty mediocre teams? They should have lost to Seattle. They got embarrassed by Miami at home. They fell to the Jets at home when the same Favre you're crapping on passed all over the Pats and was the reason they won that game and took the division away from the Pats for good. They were thrashed by Pittsburgh (granted, a great team) and got manhandled by a San Diego team during the first half of the season when they were horrendous.To say Belichick should come within double digit votes of Harbaugh, Mike Smith, or Sparano is incredibly short-sighted.

i'll put this to you as simply as possible: if peyton manning was traded for phillip rivers or kurt warner before the season started, and manning put up the exact same stats that rivers or warner did in sd or zona this year, and rivers or warner put up the exact same season that peyton did in indy this year, there is a 100% chance that everybody still says peyton wins hands down. their numbers both kill his and they also carried their respective teams on their backs with awful running games and putrid d's. how on earth is his case any stronger than theirs? i'd personally give the mvp to michael turner or adrian peterson, and i think both make equally strong cases. as for your belichick points...you pretty much strengthened mine. they were horrendous during the first half of the season, cassell was putrid and hopeless, and he turned that around into an 11-5 team and inexplicably one of the best qbs in the league.

 

[Kleck]

Good read kd1. Whether I agree or disagree, I like hearing people's random thoughts.

 

[GiantsRule]

I know these are your opinions, but you're WAY off base on Peyton Manning. "How little he has to do?" He essentially carried that team on his back for 8 straight weeks after it looked like they were going to experience a frankly embarrassing fall from grace. Not sure why you would think he just gets credit on name alone. There's not a more deserving MVP candidate this year.

Also, enough with the Belichick crotch washing (not just you, but the media and 99.9% of Patriots nation). He's not the Coach of the Year this season - far from it. Instead of looking at how the Patriots won 11 games with a backup QB, poor defense, and random running game, why not point to the fact that they had the easiest schedule in the history of the league and still struggled against some pretty mediocre teams? They should have lost to Seattle. They got embarrassed by Miami at home. They fell to the Jets at home when the same Favre you're crapping on passed all over the Pats and was the reason they won that game and took the division away from the Pats for good. They were thrashed by Pittsburgh (granted, a great team) and got manhandled by a San Diego team during the first half of the season when they were horrendous.

To say Belichick should come within double digit votes of Harbaugh, Mike Smith, or Sparano is incredibly short-sighted.

i'll put this to you as simply as possible: if peyton manning was traded for phillip rivers or kurt warner before the season started, and manning put up the exact same stats that rivers or warner did in sd or zona this year, and rivers or warner put up the exact same season that peyton did in indy this year, there is a 100% chance that everybody still says peyton wins hands down. their numbers both kill his and they also carried their respective teams on their backs with awful running games and putrid d's. how on earth is his case any stronger than theirs? i'd personally give the mvp to michael turner or adrian peterson, and i think both make equally strong cases. as for your belichick points...you pretty much strengthened mine. they were horrendous during the first half of the season, cassell was putrid and hopeless, and he turned that around into an 11-5 team and inexplicably one of the best qbs in the league.

You're way off base on Manning. Rivers, for all his good stats, couldn't get the Chargers out of the AFC West basement for most of the season and only a Denver collapse allowed them to capture the NFL's most embarrassing division. I think Drew Brees proved how meaningless strong stats are when you can't win games. And Warner was TOTALLY exposed in the 2nd half of the season. You're also completely overlooking the fact that he has the best 1-2 punch at WR in the league and as it turns out, the best 3-4 punch as well (Breaston/Urban). And isn't it strange that the running game which started off pretty decent with Edgerrin James carrying the load and Tim Hightower handling short yardage and goal line work when Arizona was winning completely disappeared down the stretch when defenses figured out Warner's game plan and Hightower got outplayed by afterthought JJ Arrington? You obviously have a strong bias against Peyton Manning because Warner wouldn't be .500 on that Indy team and Rivers proved he can just barely be .500 on his own team!And I don't see how I strengthened your Belichick point at all. If you're saying the Pats were "horrendous" during the first half of the season (when they went 5-3; 3-1 during the first four games), what does that say for the second half when they had exactly one win over a good playoff team (Miami)? Don't believe me? Look at the schedule:

Sun 11/9 Buffalo W 20-10 - Buffalo became a joke after the 4-0 start and the joke was punctuated 3 weeks later when they were embarrassed by SF at home. And the Pats still only won by 10 at home! Thu 11/13 NY Jets L 31-34 - Again, this was the HOME game where Favre looked like every bit the Hall of Famer that he is Sun 11/23 at Miami W 48-28 - A very impressive rebound game after their embarrassing home loss earlier in the season Sun 11/30 Pittsburgh L 10-33 - A true embarrassment that you wouldn't see out of a Coach of the Year-led team Sun 12/7 at Seattle W 24-21 - Again, this is when the Pats supposedly hit their stride; they trailed most of this game and by all rights should have lost this one but pulled out a squeaker. A squeaker against a 4-12 team mind you. Sun 12/14 at Oakland W 49-26 - It's less surprising that they hung 49 on the Raiders and more surprising that they gave up 26 to an offense run by JaMarcus Russell Sun 12/21 Arizona W 47-7 - You can't be serious to count this as an impressive win when Zona didn't put forth an ounce of effort for six weeks Sun 12/28 at Buffalo W 13-0 - No comment necessarySo essentially, the Pats won most games they were expected to in a year when the NFL placed them in the easiest schedule in the history of the NFL. Cassel was an impressive, feel-good story. But it's not like the Pats would have looked like the Browns or Lions if they had anybody worse at the helm. You seem like a smart reasonable guy. How do you completely discount Peyton Manning's accomplishments but then pump Belichick up as the second coming for doing what's expected of him (and STILL falling short!)?

 

[To commish is my wish]

If I'm an NFL GM in need of a rb, i throw a big chunk of money at Jerious Norwood, and a slightly smaller chunk of money at Darren Sproles.

I think Sproles is far more versatile than Norwood, and has a lot more experience, too.

 

[Duke1948]

If I'm an NFL GM in need of a rb, i throw a big chunk of money at Jerious Norwood, and a slightly smaller chunk of money at Darren Sproles.

I think Sproles is far more versatile than Norwood, and has a lot more experience, too.

better look back at those #s...maybe at KR/PR, but not at being a RB.

 

[Raider Nation]

-Joe Flacco throws the prettiest ball since Warren Moon.

I respectfully disagree with both of you. Jeff George was still playing after Moon retired. Taking nothing away from Flacco and Moon, George may have been a bonehead of the highest order, but he threw a prettier ball than those two. Perhaps the prettiest ball of any QB EVER.

 

[massraider]

-The Raiders wasted their entire season giving the bulk of their carries to easily the worst of their 3 rb's.

Should've watched a few of their games, you'd have a different opinion.

i did, and those are my opinions. hard to imagine that you seriously believe that pounding the ball for 2-3 ypc with justin fargas maximizes your chances of winning ballgames.

I did too and agree the Raiders played Fargas way too much, Fargas is not that good at all, he has heart... blah blah blah, the fact is both McFadden and Bush are easily better than Fargas, 2 yards and hardly ever a broken tackle.

I would guess he had more broken tackles in one game, than DMC did all year.

McFadden and Bush both break alot more tackles than Fargas, Fargas never breaks tackles, he falls down constantly on first contact

This statement is incorrect. Very.

 

[Carver Lee]

-Joe Flacco throws the prettiest ball since Warren Moon.

Kerry Collins says hi

 

[Incogneto]

Is it ok to add a few short ones of my own?

- Seattle is a much better team then their 4 wins give them credit for. They played 3/4 of the season with a backup QB, and the Defense never hit a groove. The last 4 games of the season tell a better story where they went 2-2, and should have been 3-1 (NE Loss). A little re-tooling on Offense, and a new coach (buh-bye Holmy!), and this team could surprise next season.

- Singletary had that 9er team motivated. They were a different team with him, and really could be an up-and-comer...even though I don't think Shaun Hill is the answer as the signal caller.

- Saints need D. That offense is one of the most entertaining in the league, and should give that team a chance to win every game. its a shame that the Def. can't hold up thier end of the bargain.

- Teams in all forms of dissaray: Cinci, KC, Dallas, Denver, Cleveland and the most obvious...Detroit.

- Philly could be a team to surprise in the playoffs....but they have to make sure it is Jekyl that shows up, and not Hyde. If they can beat Minny, they will take on (most likey) the Giants...and we saw what happened the last time these 2 teams played.

- Crennel deserved it....so did Marinelli...but Man-Genius????

those are just a couple thoughts off the top of my head at 2am.

 

[Jercules]

I know these are your opinions, but you're WAY off base on Peyton Manning. "How little he has to do?" He essentially carried that team on his back for 8 straight weeks after it looked like they were going to experience a frankly embarrassing fall from grace. Not sure why you would think he just gets credit on name alone. There's not a more deserving MVP candidate this year.

Also, enough with the Belichick crotch washing (not just you, but the media and 99.9% of Patriots nation). He's not the Coach of the Year this season - far from it. Instead of looking at how the Patriots won 11 games with a backup QB, poor defense, and random running game, why not point to the fact that they had the easiest schedule in the history of the league and still struggled against some pretty mediocre teams? They should have lost to Seattle. They got embarrassed by Miami at home. They fell to the Jets at home when the same Favre you're crapping on passed all over the Pats and was the reason they won that game and took the division away from the Pats for good. They were thrashed by Pittsburgh (granted, a great team) and got manhandled by a San Diego team during the first half of the season when they were horrendous.

To say Belichick should come within double digit votes of Harbaugh, Mike Smith, or Sparano is incredibly short-sighted.

i'll put this to you as simply as possible: if peyton manning was traded for phillip rivers or kurt warner before the season started, and manning put up the exact same stats that rivers or warner did in sd or zona this year, and rivers or warner put up the exact same season that peyton did in indy this year, there is a 100% chance that everybody still says peyton wins hands down. their numbers both kill his and they also carried their respective teams on their backs with awful running games and putrid d's. how on earth is his case any stronger than theirs? i'd personally give the mvp to michael turner or adrian peterson, and i think both make equally strong cases. as for your belichick points...you pretty much strengthened mine. they were horrendous during the first half of the season, cassell was putrid and hopeless, and he turned that around into an 11-5 team and inexplicably one of the best qbs in the league.

You're way off base on Manning. Rivers, for all his good stats, couldn't get the Chargers out of the AFC West basement for most of the season and only a Denver collapse allowed them to capture the NFL's most embarrassing division. I think Drew Brees proved how meaningless strong stats are when you can't win games. And Warner was TOTALLY exposed in the 2nd half of the season. You're also completely overlooking the fact that he has the best 1-2 punch at WR in the league and as it turns out, the best 3-4 punch as well (Breaston/Urban). And isn't it strange that the running game which started off pretty decent with Edgerrin James carrying the load and Tim Hightower handling short yardage and goal line work when Arizona was winning completely disappeared down the stretch when defenses figured out Warner's game plan and Hightower got outplayed by afterthought JJ Arrington? You obviously have a strong bias against Peyton Manning because Warner wouldn't be .500 on that Indy team and Rivers proved he can just barely be .500 on his own team!And I don't see how I strengthened your Belichick point at all. If you're saying the Pats were "horrendous" during the first half of the season (when they went 5-3; 3-1 during the first four games), what does that say for the second half when they had exactly one win over a good playoff team (Miami)? Don't believe me? Look at the schedule:

Sun 11/9 Buffalo W 20-10 - Buffalo became a joke after the 4-0 start and the joke was punctuated 3 weeks later when they were embarrassed by SF at home. And the Pats still only won by 10 at home! Thu 11/13 NY Jets L 31-34 - Again, this was the HOME game where Favre looked like every bit the Hall of Famer that he is Sun 11/23 at Miami W 48-28 - A very impressive rebound game after their embarrassing home loss earlier in the season Sun 11/30 Pittsburgh L 10-33 - A true embarrassment that you wouldn't see out of a Coach of the Year-led team Sun 12/7 at Seattle W 24-21 - Again, this is when the Pats supposedly hit their stride; they trailed most of this game and by all rights should have lost this one but pulled out a squeaker. A squeaker against a 4-12 team mind you. Sun 12/14 at Oakland W 49-26 - It's less surprising that they hung 49 on the Raiders and more surprising that they gave up 26 to an offense run by JaMarcus Russell Sun 12/21 Arizona W 47-7 - You can't be serious to count this as an impressive win when Zona didn't put forth an ounce of effort for six weeks Sun 12/28 at Buffalo W 13-0 - No comment necessarySo essentially, the Pats won most games they were expected to in a year when the NFL placed them in the easiest schedule in the history of the NFL. Cassel was an impressive, feel-good story. But it's not like the Pats would have looked like the Browns or Lions if they had anybody worse at the helm. You seem like a smart reasonable guy. How do you completely discount Peyton Manning's accomplishments but then pump Belichick up as the second coming for doing what's expected of him (and STILL falling short!)?

New England built their entire offense around Brady, and when he went down they were, for the moment, seriously screwed. They weren't running some rudimentary offense designed to de-emphasize a horrible QB: this was the highest scoring attack in NFL history a year ago. It's run-and-shoot with tons of option routes, screens, and deep plays to Moss, with no power running game, no playaction, not even a great TE to take any pressure off an unseasoned QB such as Cassel (who was panned as being an unfit BACKUP right after the preseason, remember).Anyone can drive a Pinto, but Cassel had to get into a Maserati and to his credit, and Belichick's credit, by the end of the season the Pats were lighting people up like it was 2007. That alone deserves coach of the year consideration.

Now Dungy is a great coach, but when Bob Sanders goes down their entire defense turns to crap. If they lost Manning, they'd be toast, no question. In San Diego, Merriman is lost for the year and the whole defense tanks. In Dallas, Romo goes down for a few games and suddenly the St. Louis Rams are lighting them up.

The Patriots lost Tom Brady, Adalius Thomas, Rodney Harrison, Ty Warren, Tedy Bruschi, numerous starting O-lineman, numerous RBs... they go 11-5. This team had every excuse to tank this season and reload for next year, and instead they go 11-5. That speaks to the strength of their organization, coaching IN PARTICULAR.

They lost to Miami thanks to the NFL strategic equivalent of a sucker punch (the Wildcat), they lost to San Diego (which has been obsessed with beating the Pats for years now, right down to drafting players based on their ability to match up to New England players - I kid you not), and their final three losses were to Indy, NYJ, and Pittsburgh.

Now they'll give COY to Mike Smith I imagine, because what he did was a great story and they want a fresh face. But there's no denigrating the job Belichick did this year. No other coach could've brought that MASH unit anywhere near the playoffs.

 

[djcolts]

i'll put this to you as simply as possible: if peyton manning was traded for phillip rivers or kurt warner before the season started, and manning put up the exact same stats that rivers or warner did in sd or zona this year, and rivers or warner put up the exact same season that peyton did in indy this year, there is a 100% chance that everybody still says peyton wins hands down. their numbers both kill his and they also carried their respective teams on their backs with awful running games and putrid d's. how on earth is his case any stronger than theirs? i'd personally give the mvp to michael turner or adrian peterson, and i think both make equally strong cases.

Rivers' team finished 8-8. That is why he won't win MVP. If Peyton quarterbacked an 8 and 8 team, he wouldn't (and shouldn't) win MVP, either.Warner's problem is two-fold. One, his team faltered down the stretch - in the pitiful NFC West, his team won 9 games (the Colts won 9 IN A ROW). Two, the biggest difference between Peyton and Warner is that Peyton doesn't hold on to the ball too long, and doesn't fumble it very often - while Warner does both. Losing fumbles and taking too many sacks loses games.The reasons I don't think Peterson is the MVP are: 1) He fumbles way too much, 2) He's too much of a boom or bust back, and that doesn't sustain offense and 3) he's a two-down back, not a 3 down back. Chester Taylor plays a lot of 3rd down plays, and seems to be a better receiver and blocker than Peterson. MVPs are generally complete players.Turner's main problem is not his fault - who's the MVP of the Falcons, Turner or Matt Ryan? You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year. The Colts were 31st in rushing this year. The OL line was a mess most of the year - and somehow he was only sacked 14 times (and, I watched every Colts game - it wasn't the greatness of the offensive line that was the reason for the low sack total). He had to make more with fewer possessions (the D was inconsistent and gave up long drives - the problems with the offensive line meant fewer opportunities to go deep - combine those two factors, and he had many fewer drives to work with than any other MVP candidate). He had two knee surgeries in the summer, and it showed in the 1st half of the year. And, yet, when it was dire, and it looked terrible for the Colts, they ran off 9 straight wins to end the season - and many of those games he had to win it in the 4th quarter. I think if it isn't his best regular season, it is his most incredible regular season, considering all the problems this team had. This is an 8 and 8 team at best that somehow was willed into the playoffs by Peyton Manning.

 

[kd1]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."

and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody. peyton gets mvp this year based on his body of work in his career. throw out numbers, and pennington, cassell, and roethlisberger are just as deserving. i don't care about the order peyton won his games. rivers' and the chargers' desperation run to the playoffs was just as impressive. not to mention, peyton was gifted 2 of his wins, and rivers had 2 ripped away from him. for a previous poster, i love how being able to throw the ball to fitz and boldin (even though he missed 5 or 6 games) is a strike against warner, and suddenly the most prolific wr tandem in the last however many years that peyton is throwing to is considered chop liver, and peyton succeeded in spite of them.

obviously hard to tell from all this, but i actually love peyton...i'm fully aware of how great he is, and i think he deserves to be in the discussion for MVP this year. but objectively, there are several more deserving, and it's the blatant media bias and worship for him that secured him the award after week 14.

who is the last player to win MVP on a wildcard team? anybody know?

 

[djcolts]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody. peyton gets mvp this year based on his body of work in his career. throw out numbers, and pennington, cassell, and roethlisberger are just as deserving. i don't care about the order peyton won his games. rivers' and the chargers' desperation run to the playoffs was just as impressive. not to mention, peyton was gifted 2 of his wins, and rivers had 2 ripped away from him. for a previous poster, i love how being able to throw the ball to fitz and boldin (even though he missed 5 or 6 games) is a strike against warner, and suddenly the most prolific wr tandem in the last however many years that peyton is throwing to is considered chop liver, and peyton succeeded in spite of them.obviously hard to tell from all this, but i actually love peyton...i'm fully aware of how great he is, and i think he deserves to be in the discussion for MVP this year. but objectively, there are several more deserving, and it's the blatant media bias and worship for him that secured him the award after week 14.who is the last player to win MVP on a wildcard team? anybody know?

Steve McNair won co-MVP as a WC in 2003, and his campaign was even more about being "beyond the numbers" and "being a warrior" than Peyton's is this year. And they lost to the Colts twice that year, AND he missed 2 games due to injury.The last 4 years (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) someone had overwhelming stats that couldn't be ignored and were on teams that won at least 12 games, so they won MVP (Peyton, Alexander, LT2, Brady). This is the 1st year since 2003 where there isn't an overwhelmingly great stat year on a team that won big.

 

[buster c]

-I'd rather watch the Lions, or any other team in the league, 10 times out of 10 before I'd watch....The Washington Redskins. I feel for their fans. The most boring brand of "can't possibly contend or bring entertainment to it's viewers" football for going on at least 5 years now. You ask me to perennially rank the teams before the season starts in the order of their shot to win it all, I'm putting them 32nd with pen ink, and then I'll grab a pencil and put my thinking cap on to sort out the other 31.

other than your use of the word "musings," a solid thread.I'm a bit of a self-loathing Skins fan - it started the minute Snyder bought the team - but your thought above is incomplete. If you're talking about the offense, no problem. But I am a fan of hard-hitting D and there are only a handful better than what we've seen from the Skins over the past 5 years.

 

[IndyHavoc]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody.

Umm, way off. Or, you just started watching football recently. The year McNair (TEN) and Manning shared the MVP comes to mind. (2003?) Manning's #'s completely destroyed McNair in every way. But, McNair was a complete Iron Man and literally willed his team to incredible win after win. Someone else can look up the #'s, but I distinctly remember that it was a wide margin.ETA:............Comp Att Pct Yds Avg TD Int Sck SckY Rate Att Yds Avg TD FUM Lost Manning 379 566 67.0 4,267 7.5 29 10 18 107 99.0 28 26 0.9 0 6 1 McNair.. 250 400 62.5 3,215 8.0 24 7 19 108 100.4 38 138 3.6 4 12 6

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

The Most Outstanding Player (not necessarily most VALUABLE though) is Nnamdi Asomugha.

For MVP, I would vote Micheal Turner for what he meant to his team with Philip Rivers a close second. If you just want to name the QB of the best team (which seems to be case in the P. Manning/Brees/Warner/Rivers discussion) then give the award to Eli Manning. He won more games than Peyton did.

 

[IndyHavoc]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody.

Steve McNair won co-MVP as a WC in 2003, and his campaign was even more about being "beyond the numbers" and "being a warrior" than Peyton's is this year.

Dern you, DJ. Beat me by a lot....couldn't even finish reading the thread after reading that post. SOOO, clear in my head that the MVP voting has MORE OFTEN been about the big picture and considering all things, than just purely stats. Well, unless you break some long standing record...say, like TD passes in a year.

 

[kd1]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody.

Steve McNair won co-MVP as a WC in 2003, and his campaign was even more about being "beyond the numbers" and "being a warrior" than Peyton's is this year.

Dern you, DJ. Beat me by a lot....couldn't even finish reading the thread after reading that post. SOOO, clear in my head that the MVP voting has MORE OFTEN been about the big picture and considering all things, than just purely stats. Well, unless you break some long standing record...say, like TD passes in a year.

to quote Tom Hanks in the movie "Big"...."I don't get it." you guys just provided one singular example, where they gave the guy half an mvp award. how exactly is that "MORE OFTEN"? i stand corrected about the simple answer being "nobody". as you pointed out, there's at least one example of a guy getting .5 MVP while being sure to recognize peyton and giving him the other .5 for his superior statistics in the same season.i'm not trying to use this as an argument, am just curious...before mcnairs 1/2 mvp, who was the last MVP from a non-division winner?

 

[David Yudkin]

"You have to look beyond the numbers with what Peyton did this year."and that's my entire point about him, in a nutshell. what other MVP in the history of the league can you make this statement for? who else has gotten the luxury of looking past their numbers to hand them the MVP?? simple answer: nobody.

Steve McNair won co-MVP as a WC in 2003, and his campaign was even more about being "beyond the numbers" and "being a warrior" than Peyton's is this year.

Dern you, DJ. Beat me by a lot....couldn't even finish reading the thread after reading that post. SOOO, clear in my head that the MVP voting has MORE OFTEN been about the big picture and considering all things, than just purely stats. Well, unless you break some long standing record...say, like TD passes in a year.

to quote Tom Hanks in the movie "Big"...."I don't get it." you guys just provided one singular example, where they gave the guy half an mvp award. how exactly is that "MORE OFTEN"?i'm not trying to use this as an argument, am just curious...before mcnairs 1/2 mvp, who was the last MVP from a non-division winner?

Barry Sanders was a co-MVP with the 9-7 Lions, and IIRC Detroit did not make the playoffs and finished 3rd in the Norris division.