Observing the funny stuff in sports while being an avid fan of the Blues, Cardinals, Steelers, and several other teams. Here's the link to my old site: http://www.stlouiscardinalsnews.com/nehechow/weblog/
Sunday, following the Rams' first win in a home opener since 2006, was full of hope. They had a chance to beat a Bears team that was down to their second running back and struggled mightily to protect quarterback Jay Cutler the previous week in Green Bay.
Unfortunately, in football, you have to play on both sides of the ball. The Rams' defense was everything they could've hoped for against the pass. Cutler was just 17-31 for 183 yards and a pick without a touchdown. He was also sacked twice. The Bears' rushing game wasn't extremely effective either, overall, but they allowed the Bears to convert on a couple of crucial third downs. Their goal-line stand on which running back Michael Bush rushed for the Bears' only offensive touchdown was also unimpressive. But what was most disappointing about a pretty decent defensive day for the Rams, was two extremely stupid penalties that led to both the aforementioned touchdown and a field goal by extending two Chicago drives. Even the replacement refs know that you can't hit the punter and you can't hit the quarterback late. The Rams probably got away with a few late hits on Cutler, but if you do something illegal enough, you're probably going to be caught eventually. And that's exactly what happened. The flag was thrown, the Bears kept the ball, and eventually scored the game's only offensive touchdown to build a 10-0 lead. The Rams' anemic offense would ensure that would be all that the Bears would need.
I know that the St. Louis offensive line has struggled in years past and has already been decimated by injuries this season, but that's starting to not be an excuse anymore for quarterback Sam Bradford. He was sacked six times on Sunday and I would estimate that at least three of them, you could put on Bradford. He's simply holding on to the ball for too long. In the NFL, quarterbacks can not expect to get five seconds to throw the ball. They're lucky if they get three on most plays. If he can extend the play by scrambling, that's fine, but he doesn't do that very often. Bradford often goes into the fetal position and just take the sack. Sacks are better than interceptions, but these are not all coverage sacks, with zero open receivers available. On the pick-six he threw, wide receiver Danny Amendola was wide open on the left side of the field as the, but he forced it deep into tight coverage that quickly became double coverage on the same side of the field. He's clearly not going through his progressions and is still not comfortable in the pocket. Teams don't win many games in which their quarterback takes six sacks, so Bradford will either need to start making plays with his legs or at least learn to get rid of the ball quicker to get back to winning like he did in college.
It's been a week and I'm over the Steelers loss to the Denver Tebows, er...Broncos. It was painful to watch, but the reality was, with the team as banged up as they were, they just weren't going to be able to make another Super Bowl run this year, and I suppose I'd rather have them lose to a silly sideshow than a team I actually hate, like the New England Patriots.
We didn't deserve to win the game, with the way we played. After our second drive, our offense pretty much shut down until the second half, which allowed the Broncos to build a two touchdown lead on their own field. Our secondary looked like it belonged in the Alamo Bowl. How a team allows over 300 passing yards on just 10 completions is beyond me. Sure, with a lot of our defensive linemen hurt, the pass rush isn't going to be as good, but that doesn't directly result in our corner backs and safeties not being able to tackle. I can't really explain how Tim Tebow keeps winning, I just know that he does. I hope he will at least continue it this week. The Patriots have 13 players listed as questionable going into tonight's game, according to Mike Rodak of ESPN. This gives me hope that more Tebow magic could be available. That, and the fact the Patriots have just a terrible defense. I feel that this game will be much closer than the beat down that took place in Denver, but I feel Tebow might turn back into a pumpkin soon and the carriage ride could be over.
I'm taking the Patriots in this one: 27-20 (Prove me wrong, Tim Tebow, prove me wrong!)
As for the early game on Saturday between the 49ers and Saints, I feel that the matchup probably favors San Francisco. They're at home for one and they have the top rushing defense to pit against the Saints' strong rushing attack. When a top offense takes on a top defense, the defense usually wins. That said, the St. Louis Rams stayed with the 49ers twice and they looked really unimpressive in both games. I still don't feel that they're that good of a team, nor do I feel that Alex Smith is that great of an NFL quarterback. Drew Brees, on the other hand, is a former Super Bowl MVP and if the ground attack doesn't do much, he can still make the offense work by throwing screen passes to Darren Sproles and hitting his myriad of receivers. Brees spreads the ball around like Antonio Cromartie spreads his, well, you know (click the link if you don't know). I have to take the Saints in this one, just due to experience and the quarterback factor.
Saints 38 - 49ers 30
The early game on Sunday I feel, is the easiest straight up pick of the week. The Ravens have finally gotten their home playoff game that has alluded them for years. Their defense is as strong as ever. And the Ravens beat the Texans 29-14 in Week 5 when Houston was at their best and still had Matt Schaub taking snaps. They're now down to their third string quarterback, rookie T.J. Yates, at this point. I just don't see a rookie going on the road against a top defense and being mistake-free enough to come away with this win. I mean, the Ravens don't have a great quarterback either in Joe Flacco, but he has much more experience managing games than Yates does. I think the Texans' only chance is if they can completely shut down Ray Rice and the Baltimore running game. Houston's defense is certainly their strong suit, so they can for Flacco to beat them, they might have a shot. I'm still taking the Ravens.
Ravens 16 Texans 10
For the last game of the weekend, we have one of those classic playoff scenarios. We have the best team, the dominant team, in the Green Bay Packers. They nearly went undefeated in the regular season and simply dominated the NFL this season. We also have the New York Giants, the classic "they're hot at the right time" team. We saw this match up in the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies and we know how that ended (See right for emphasis, especially Carp's face).
I'm going to go ahead and ride the crazy train, and pick the Giants on this one. A lot can be said for hot teams and the Packers aren't in mid-season form right now. Their offensive line is beat up and Aaron Rodgers hasn't thrown a pass in a game situation in three weeks. On the other side of the ball, the Giants defensive line finally has all of its starters together, which was not the case when these two teams met during the regular season. Eli Manning has been in the zone lately and the Giants have managed to get their running game going again in recent weeks. I went with the most logical picks last week and only went two for four. Let's see what a little bit of crazy will do.
Giants 27 Packers 25
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
The Rams announced yesterday that they have hired Jeff Fisher as the team's new head coach. Or should I say Fisher hired the Rams, as he was choosing between them and Miami? Either way, this was a big victory for the Rams. The head coaching pool was pretty thin this season with Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden looking to remain with their television jobs for at least one more year. Fisher was the best candidate available, so it was important for the Rams to acquire him. For the first time since Dick Vermeil left, they've hired a coach who has previous experience in the NFL as a head coach (I'm not counting Jim Haslett since he was an interim and wasn't hired as an actual head coach).
The Rams already have a few building blocks in place with Sam Bradford at quarterback, probably one more good year out of Steven Jackson in the backfield, James Laurinaitis at linebacker, and Chris Long on the defensive line, who had a Pro Bowl caliber year regardless of what the idiot voters said. 13 sacks in a season when your team is almost always behind is impressive. First-round pick Robert Quinn also looks like he could be a solid player in upcoming years, especially with better coaching. The Rams also have the second pick overall in the upcoming draft and quite a bit of cap space.
Fisher chose the Rams because they have an attractive situation, even after yet another abysmal season. I don't expect the Rams to return to the playoffs next year, but if they add more weapons around Bradford (including drafting Justin Blackmon out of Oklahoma State) the one year turn around from a weak team to a power is possible in this league. The 49ers have shown us that this season. The 1999 Rams showed us that more than a decade ago by being the first (and last) team to go from 0-8 in a division to 8-0 in a division in a year's time. I'll give a true prediction on what I see the Rams doing once I see the schedule come out this spring, but for the time being, I'm hopeful that my other team can get back on track.
It rolls around every four years. It's a time when I choose my favorite team over the hometown team and get a lot of trash talk from my friends. It's time for the Steelers to play the Rams. And even though the Steelers winning the game would serve both teams best, the Steelers for playoff position and the Rams for draft position, it will still look like a betrayal to many of my friends.
When watching your team, even if it would be better for your team to lose, it's still difficult not to get caught up in the game and find yourself cheering for your team. It happened to me, just last week. I attended the Rams/Bengals tilt with my friends Sam, Matt, and their friend Craig. Going into the game, I certainly was hoping for a Rams loss. Winning could do the Rams no good and I was hoping for Cincinnati to get on a roll heading into their Week 17 match up with the Ravens. But after being in the Ed Jones Dome with thousands of Bengals fans and witnessing the Rams getting hosed by the refs on one of the Bengals' two touchdown drives, it still ticked me off to watch the Rams lose to them. So while it's all well and good for my friends to say they don't care about this week's game, I'm certain that if the Rams were to somehow pull ahead, I'd receive a drove of text messages about it. As for the Rams, I don't expect them to produce much on the field, but maybe we'll get another gem from Harvey Dahl (video below).
The Rams game was excruciating aside from Dahl's choice words, which livened up the stadium. The bright side was, I still had my favorite team, the Steelers, for a fall back. I wore my Pittsburgh cap to the game and didn't get a word of smack talk from any Bengals fans. It's good to have a back up.
I hope the Steelers realize that this week and decide to sit Ben Roethlisberger. He looked awful on Monday night against the 49ers and let's face it, the Steelers' defense alone should be enough to defeat this year's pitiful version of the Rams. Stick Charlie Batch in there. Have him hand of the ball to a solid running back in Rashard Mendenhall and just run it down the throat of the Rams, who have the worst rushing defense in the league (It's worse than the Raptors' new alternate uniforms). The Steelers can probably knock off the Browns in Week 17 with Batch in there too, but I'm fine with Big Ben playing again if he looks better. I just don't think it's worth risking your starting quarterback when in all likelihood, you can win without him, because in the playoffs, they won't win without him.
A quick side note for hockey fans: if you haven't been following HBO's show, 24/7, which follows the two clubs on the way to the Winter Classic (the Rangers and Flyers this year), you probably missed this clip of Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. I was on the floor the first time I watched it and it literally had me rolling. It's definitely a show worth watching if you have HBO (Or I could just be realistic and say the internet, as I'm sure it's floating around somewhere). Enjoy, eh?!
Every time I start to doubt the Cardinals, they do the unthinkable. First, they go 18-8 during September to make the playoffs (thanks Braves). Then, last night in Game 2 of the Division Series against the Phillies, they fell behind 4-0, going up against Cliff Lee, and they came back to win. Lee wasn't exactly Roy Halladay last night, as he was in out of trouble. He gave up a leadoff triple in the first inning and a leadoff double in the second inning and managed to get out of it unscathed both times.
At that point, it's starting to look like one of those nights and one of those series, too. But then, the Cardinals finally managed to string together some hits in the fourth inning and rallied to score three runs. They nearly tied it that inning, as Jon Jay made the final out at home. But after that, the Cardinals knew they were in the game. Even with Carpenter getting lit up early, they were still in the game. We then were witness to the bizarro baseball world. Carpenter was pitching like the Cardinals bullpen for much of the season and the bullpen started pitching like Carpenter. The combination of Fernando Salas, Octavio Dotel, Mark Rzepczynski (or as several of my friends have come to call him, Scrabble), Mitchell Boggs, Arthur Rhodes, and Jason Motte threw six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out six and walking no one. Rhodes struck out Ryan Howard with the tying run at first. The guy should be signing up for AARP, not striking out the guy that hit the ball three miles the day before. But this shit actually happened.
Now the Cardinals can come home and have a chance to close out the series in four games, without having go to back to Philadelphia. And if the Phillies don't want to throw Halladay on short rest, the Cards could also avoid facing him by closing out the series at home. I'll make this decree just like I've done over the past couple of months and will probably be proven wrong again, but the Cards won't win a Game 5 in Philly against Roy Halladay. That just doesn't make sense. After Lance Berkman's three-run bomb in the first inning of Game 1, that was pretty much all we got. Skip Schumaker got a leadoff single in the second, but after that, Halladay pulled a NASCAR and "shut her down." And while this may seem like my first NASCAR reference since I began this blog close to three years ago, it's really just my first Brian Regan reference. If anything, I'm making fun of NASCAR and how it's not a sport, but just a bunch of red necks turning left. I'm not saying that driving in circles at really high speeds isn't difficult, I'm just saying I don't find it entertaining and a machine shouldn't decide the outcome of something that is actually a sport. There, I said it! End tangent! But yes, Halladay retired 21 consecutive batters after Schumaker's single. He didn't even do that in his first start of the playoffs last year. And that was a no-hitter! So yes, I definitely don't like our chances in that scenario.
Let's just win the next two and not worry about that...
Also, just a word to the Rams' offensive line. Blocking is not optional. It's your job. Maybe, do it? And wide receivers, you should probably receive the ball every once in a while too. I heard an unofficial number today, which was that the Rams had 20 drops in Sunday's game. TWENTY! Bradford's completion percentage could've jumped from 47% to 93%. I don't expect them to catch all of those balls, but even most of them would make Bradford's numbers respectable and he deserves better. I just don't know that he'll get what he deserves this season.
First, let's backtrack and look at college for a second. Miami beat 17th ranked Ohio State 24-6 yesterday. While I was happy with the outcome, since Miami isn't going anywhere this season anyway, I'm sad that no one billed that game as the Cheaters Bowl 2011.
A quick look at my teams:
The Steelers should bounce back this week for four reasons. 1. The Seahawks suck. 2. The Steelers are at home. 3. The Steelers turned the ball over seven times last week and if they don't come out angrier than a Nazi on fire, there is something wrong with them. 4. The Seahawks are a west coast team and are playing at 1 pm ET. West coast teams typically do really poorly in that scenario, especially when they have to travel all the way across the country. (Thanks to Dan the Clark for pointing that last one out).
The Rams, unfortunately, are in trouble. Steven Jackson isn't playing (or at least he shouldn't) due to his pulled quad muscle. Sam Bradford didn't look sharp at all in the new offense last week and will be without his favorite target in Danny Amendola. And he's going to have to deal with a defensive line that's far superior to that of the Eagles, and the Philly D-line made Swiss cheese of the Rams' O-line last week. The Rams' front five have to get better this week, or we could have a blowout loss to go with an 0-2 record. Defensively, the Rams will be without Ron Bartell (probably for the year) and some of their tackling looked like the Rams from the 1-15 season. Sure, Eli Manning isn't going to run circles around the Rams like Michael Vick, but I hope tackling drills were a part of practice this week.
Thoughts and Questions Around the NFL:
Parlay bet of the week. Look for the Redskins and Bills to both start 2-0. We'll name it the Professor Chanderbhan effect, after my DC native friend who recently moved to Buffalo.
When was the last time the Lions were a favorite over a team that made the playoffs the previous year? It was probably before the last ice age, but I expect this to hold up and am taking the Lions over the Chiefs.
If the Eagles are scheduled to play the Browns in Cleveland next year when the two teams meet, will PETA protest Vick going into the Dawg Pound? I'm taking the Eagles over the Falcons this week and the Colts over the Browns. The Colts looked bad last week, but they didn't lose a home game to the Bengals a la the Browns.
