Month: November 2009
Week 10 Rambling Drill
Some thoughts on last week:
Put $5 on the Niners, -3, last night; they still found a way to give me a heart attack at the end of the game. Thank you, Jay Cutler, for sucking (he threw his 9th Red Zone INT yesterday!). My friend Rahul said it best about this abortion of a game: “First thing I do when I get home to to make sure this game video never gets played in my DVR, again.” Talk about two terrible efforts by two mediocre bad teams setting HD football back 10 years, geesh!
Good blow-by-blow commentary from DCSports Bog on the DeAngelo Hall vs the entire Falcons sideline Royal Rumble from last Sunday’s game. The best part of all of this is the post game comments by Hall (who may sue Falcons staffers for harrassment, lol). Talk about one paranoid athlete who still holds grudges.
Apparently, only in the NFL, you can fine Chad Ochocinco $20K for having a little fun (granted, a bit inappropriate, but still hilarious) at the referees expense, but yet when you take a cheap shot at a lineman’s face, causing potential career and life threatening injury while he can’t defend himself, you ONLY get fined $7,500 dollars. WTF?
Granted it was entertaining, but the Final Table of the 2009 WSOP sure won’t help the “poker is a game of skill” cause! What a monkey-poo flinging contest!
Here is one of my favorite articles: The Not-SO Madden A 2010 Team. Great line on WR Yamon Figurs, an overall 39 in the game:
Most embarrassing stat: 40 rating for Awareness. With that kind of Awareness rating, I’m surprised Yamon even remembers to bring his helmet to the game.
Wow, I didn’t know women’s soccer could be so chippy. Watching that video reminded me of the Celtics/Sixers-Piston-Lakers brawls of the late 80’s. Maybe DeAngelo Hall could get some tackling tips from the New Mexico defender.
Onto the picks:
NCAA:
I am contemplating taking the first half under of South Carolina vs Florida game (22). It still may be too low for my tastes, but the Gamecocks are good at keeping things close at the half, and then imploding like Steve Spurrier trying to get out of the sand bunker on 15.
NFL:
TB@MIA Over 43
I think the Ronnie and Ricky show could beat this by themselves with Tampa’s piss poor defense. Miami is also prone to giving up a big play or 3.
NO -14 @ St. Louis
Simmons convinced me here. Plus I also had a nice big win putting 45 on Indy -13.5 earlier in the year vs the Rams, who lost 42-3. Yeah, I’ll take the motivated favorite here who didn’t play their best vs Carolina last week.
6 Point Teaser of the Week:
Arizona vs Seattle –2.5
Cincinnati @ PIT +13
Green Bay Packers, NFL WTF???
Two NFL notes that have me confused today. First, the Green Bay Packers are a mess right now, starting with their offensive line and ending with their front office. These two stories happening in the same week offer some insight to what’s going on in Green Bay. Why is everyone bitching and firing old men from the grounds crew???
Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that Packers president Mark Murphy said Monday he’s disappointed with the team’s 4-4 start, especially Sunday’s shocking loss at Tampa Bay, and wants to make sure “changes” are made. The former NFL player turned executive, who took over the Packers in January 2008, believes the season can be salvaged. He also may have put head coach Mike McCarthy on notice. “We’re 4-4 halfway through the season,” Murphy said, “and I think we can still have a successful year just making sure that we make the changes that are necessary to get us to that point.”
I thought the job of the Packers president was to be seen and not heard. I don’t remember former Packers president Bob Harlan ever speaking about the football team directly to the media. I might be wrong, and all loyal Packers readers are welcome to correct me, but from my vantage point, the team president doesn’t have to state the obvious. Mark Murphy appears that he wants to be more involved in the football part of the program as the new president. Anyone other than the head coach talking to the media can send the wrong message to the fan base as evidenced by Murphy’s comments.
What changes would Murph like the Packers to make? Does he really understand the problems? I highly doubt it, and the way to create bad blood in an organization is to say something that makes no sense when you have no idea what you’re saying. I’m fairly confident that the Packers coaches are cynical about these comments.
Coach Mike McCarthy admitted today that he did have a conversation with former Packers employee Mike Wood and later inquired about Wood’s name to a supervisor, but denied any involvement in Wood’s firing.
“He made a comment to me, I made a comment to him, it’s not the worst thing that’s been said, but I would not say it to a fellow employee,” McCarthy said. “So that’s as far as I want to go with it.”
Asked if he had anything to do with Wood’s firing, McCarthy said “absolutely not.”
McCarthy would not reveal what Wood said when asked directly about it.
“Like I said, it’s not the worst thing that’s been said but I wouldn’t say it to a fellow employee,” McCarthy said.
Wood told the Journal Sentinel he yelled to McCarthy, “Hey coach, let’s get the boys ready to kick some butt this weekend,” on Oct. 28, four days before the Packers faced Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.
On Nov. 1, Wood was told McCarthy informed a supervisor that Wood had said something about not “laying an egg” against the Vikings. Wood was then terminated.
The Packers host Dallas(-3) Sunday. This would normally be an autobet on the Packers getting points at home and fading Tony Romo on the road, but given Green Bay’s musical offensive line and the turmoil in the front office, this can’t be a good spot.
The Packers should now go on to win outright on Sunday.
Second, Dictator Goodell was not pleased with Miracle Covers favorite C. Ochocinco Sunday.
The Cincinnati Bengals receiver was fined $20,000 and reprimanded by the NFL for taking a dollar bill onto the field during an officials’ review of one of his catches last Sunday. Ochocinco held the dollar in his right hand at his side but didn’t give it to the official, who motioned for him to stay away.
Ochocinco said he was just having fun, but the league didn’t like it.
Ray Anderson, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, sent Ochocinco a letter that said: “The very appearance of impropriety is not acceptable. Your conduct was unprofessional and unbecoming an NFL player.”
The No Fun League is back in case anyone was wondering.
Thursday Links
Currently watching the Bears getting called for not one, but TWO delay of game penalties on their 2-minute drill. They actually got called for a delay of game when lining up for a field goal with 6 seconds in the half while they still had a timeout remaining. Someone needs to be fired at half time.
EDIT: Cutler is up to 4 interceptions on the day, one away from completing the Dirty Sanchez. Meanwhile, San Francisco just punted into the end zone from Chicago’s 34 yard line, up 10-6 with 3 minutes to play. Both of these teams deserve to lose.
EDIT2: He did it! INT #5 in the end zone to end the game. As Nick said, “Set a goal and reach it.”
More from the annals of how not to manage a team: We’ve already discussed Allen Iverson, who’s not currently with the team. Thankfully, Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley, “expects him to come back.”
German Soccer giants Bayern Munich were ripped by their fullback Philip Lahm this week:
“Top teams in the Champions League have first-class players in seven, eight positions – we don’t,” Lahm said. “Other clubs have a system, a philosophy, and buy the players accordingly. We don’t. It’s not enough to buy good players, one has to develop a team,” he added. He specifically mentioned the lack of creative guile in midfield, an oversupply of centre-forwards and absence of a second decent full-back. It’s a squad full of big names and even bigger holes. A 13-year-old Football Manager aficionado in deepest Nepal could tell you as much….
What was the club’s response? In a word: predictable.
Lahm was disciplined after he launched an astonishing attack on the club, coach Louis van Gaal and his fellow players in Sueddeutche Zeitung, his words earning him a fine of around £26,000, while a Bayern statement asserted that Lahm had broken an “absolute taboo” in voicing his views publicly.
Also predictable is the official Spanish soccer team of Miracle Covers, Atletico Madrid, who lost to Real Madrid 3-2 last weekend.
Since October 1999, Al Nasr Saudi Club, Al-Ahly, Alavés, Alcorcón, Almería, Anderlecht, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Betis, Boca Juniors, Celta Vigo, Deportivo, Espanyol, Galatasaray, Getafe, Graz, Hannover, Internazionale, Juventus, Las Palmas, Levante, Liverpool, Lokomotiv Moscow, Málaga, Mallorca, Manchester United, Milan, Monaco, Murcia, Nastic, Numancia, Olympiakos, Lyon, Osasuna, PSV, Racing, Rayo Vallecano, Nexaca, Real Sociedad, Real Unión, Recreativo, Roma, Servette, Sevilla, Spartak Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, Tokyo Verdy, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid, Villarreal, Werder Bremen and Zaragoza have all beaten Real Madrid. Atlético have not. Somehow, every time the big day arrives, they wake up at 6am in a freezing Pennsylvania town all too aware of how it’s going to end.
Switching to tackle football, Mike Singletary & his stopwatch was “upbeat” about Alex Smith’s performance.
Singletary said Monday that “Alex had only one play that was really on him.” He meant a fourth quarter pass intended for Josh Morgan that Smith telegraphed, allowing Titans safety Chris Hope to swoop in front of Morgan for the take-away.
The 49ers rolled out 358 yards of total offense, their second best total of the season. Smith’s 286 passing yards were the most by a San Francisco quarterback this season.
“It was, unfortunately, one of the better offensive performances that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Singletary said. “Take away the turnovers, and we have a chance to really have a good offensive game and have some excitement and momentum going forward.”
Mike, the turnovers are what make the Alex Smith Experience so special. Smith literally just threw an interception as I’m typing this, negated by a Bears penalty for lining up offside.
Michael Lombardi wrote about the Giants this week:
Was the loss Coughlin’s fault? Not really, but right now he has a very fragile team lacking in confidence. He knows he needs his team to play at the level it played last Sunday in order to win. To ensure that same type of performance, he took the burden of losing off his players. He can walk into the meeting rooms and honestly tell his team that he was the reason they lost a game when they played so well. This kind of honesty from a leader is called “management of self,” which means that the leader is willing to accept blame and be honest with his team. It also allows him to be critical of his followers when the time is right, assuring that the criticism is heard.
This is a smart move on Coughlin’s part. This method of leadership doesn’t work unless the team plays well — because to accept the blame, Coughlin has to know (which is clear on the film) that his team played well. Walking into the meeting room and accepting blame for a poor effort makes the leader weak and worthless. We see this all the time. We hear a coach say, “This loss is on me. This loss is my fault,” when the team played poorly from the start. To exclude the players from criticism when the team plays poorly is not the kind of leadership that will enhance the leader’s profile with the players. He looks like a fool in the locker room, and the players get the sense that no matter how badly they play, the coach will shoulder the blame. This is not a culture he wants to create.
What better to follow that up with than Lady Gaga? Two awesome covers of Poker Face by Christopher Walken and Eric Cartman.
Where better to brush your teeth than at a soccer game?
A list of the top 100 movies of the decade. I imagine there will be a lot of best of the 00s lists in the next few months.
Really useful primer on the upcoming college hoops season.
Lastly, this preview of this weekend’s Chiefs-Raiders game will likely be more entertaining than the game itself.
NFL Week 10 Early Leans & Stats of the Week
First off, I’d like to show some love for Matt Stafford’s Miracle Cover. We might need to add this one to the definitions & examples page as Stafford’s first four picks just weren’t good enough for Seattle to cover. It took a 5th INT returned for a score with under 30 seconds remaining. Ignore the final score for future gambling; Detroit should have won this game handily and it took a Jamarcian performance to give Seattle the win.
The 49ers need to go with a platoon at QB. The Alex Smith we all came to know and love was back on Sunday with three interceptions and a fumble. Shaun Hill needs to start and be pulled whenever SF trails by more than seven points early and/or they need a score in the 4th quarter. Teams do this all the time with running backs and linebackers, swapping out players based on the game situation. Why not at quarterback too? San Francisco is in a perfect position to try this. They’re 3-5 with eight winnable games left on their schedule (CHI, @GB, JAX, @SEA, ARI, @PHI, DET, @STL).
Very, very impressive performance by the Bungles Bengals at home to Baltimore. Their defense is excellent and held the Ravens to 210 yards offense for the day. Joe Flacco was under pressure all day, Jonathan Joseph and Leon Hall were excellent, and Baltimore couldn’t run effectively enough to respond. Baltimore has serious issues on defense and look a lot like the Falcons. They will go as far as their quarterback and defensive scheme can take them.
Lastly, I’d like to propose that DeAngelo Hall be allowed to face the Falcons every season. Not only is he kind enough to play 10-12 yards off the line on nearly every play, he also managed to get in a fight with his old team again AND attempt a tackle as pathetic as Jeff Reed’s on Percy Harvin a few weeks back. Yet another reason to love Falcons coach Mike Smith as tight end Justin Peele has to pull his coach out of the scrum on the Atlanta sideline. Watch the video here.
Stats of the Week
1) Sunday’s loss to the Falcons was the first time the Redskins have allowed over 30 points in a game since their January 2008 playoff loss against Seattle (23 games). The Redskins have yet to score more than 17 points in any game this season.
2) Sack Watch: Aaron Rodgers was sacked six times in Green Bay’s loss to Tampa Sunday, putting him at 37 through 8 games. David Carr has the NFL record of 76.
3) Tennessee is 9-2 all-time when Chris Johnson scores a touchdown. He easily leads the NFL in rushing yards (959) and yards/attempt (6.7).
4) The Titans have zero turnovers in the two games Vince Young has started at QB.
5) Kansas City and Miami both lost Sunday despite having zero turnovers. NFL teams are collectively 40-10 this season when not turning the ball over (3 games have seen no turnovers by either team).
6) Dallas Clark’s 14 receptions on Sunday tied a Colts record set twice by Marvin Harrison in 1999 and 2002.
6b) Peyton Manning was 19-25 passing…in the first quarter. He ended the first half with 40 pass attempts.
7) Randy Moss has 8 touchdowns in 5 games against the Dolphins as a member of the Patriots. Touchdown #8 game on this play.
8) The Jacksonville Jaguars are 4-4.
9) Tampa’s win over Green Bay was their first in 12, dating back to November 30th, 2008 over New Orleans. On that date, their record was 9-3.
9b) Tampa’s kickers are a combined 3 for 9 on field goals this season.
10) Minnesota is currently a 17 point favorite at home to the Lions this week. Assuming it holds, it will be the largest spread of the season.
Early Leans
Not a lot out there early. Maybe this will be my bye week so I can’t set any more money on fire.
New England +3 @ Indianapolis
This will likely be a big public play as Indy looked bad in their win over Houston. That doesn’t change the fact that they have problems with good teams that are bigger than them and can rush the passer (Tony Ugoh had help all day at left tackle).
New Orleans @ St. Louis +14
I don’t want to bet this, but probably will anyway.
Teaser Miami -2.5 v Tampa & Arizona -2 v Seattle
Lots of money coming in on Miami so this line will probably move to 9.5 or 10 making this teaser useless.
2009 Week 9 NFL Picks
Loving Pat’s “fun units.” It sounds like a groupie nickname for an NBA team. As usual, follow these at your own risk.
Detroit +10 @ Seattle
Too many points for one crap team against another. Fully aware this means backing Matthew Stafford on the road.
Tennessee @ San Francisco -4
I don’t understand this line at all. Clements and Staley are out for SF but I don’t think it will matter.
Dallas @ Philadelphia -3
See Sean’s comments for this one.
Van “Lucky Man” Tran – NFL Week 9
So Van dodges a bullet because the three picks yesterday were all good. That puts us up 75 fun units for yesterday, let’s try to keep things moving. For good or bad, here are the NFL plays…
Kansas City (+6.5) @ Jacksonville
This is just a line that immediately stuck out to me in looking at things yesterday. It is one of those where you hear your inner voice saying, “oh hell, jacksonville is going to cover that.” Since we are hot at the moment I will trust that inner voice.
Miami (+10.5) @ New England
Now I really do not want to bet on this game, but Vegas is not making that a viable option with this line. This is just flat out too high. I know the Pats are playing very well right now but this line essentially means the Pats have to win by two touchdowns and that is a lot of points against a very solid Miami team. I do not love this bet by any means, but I feel my hand is being forced.
Detroit (+10) @ Seattle
I just do not see the Lions doing too much offensively in this game. Stafford on the road against a veteran team and hostile crowd makes me see something like 27-10 Seattle.
Week 9 Quick Picks
Before the picks, here’s my tip of the week: Josh Duhamel, if you are going to cheat on your wife, make sure it’s not with a stripper that works at an Atlanta club called, “Tattletales”, and certainly don’t act like you are susprised that news got out after knowing said strip club name.
It’s almost as bad as the Las Vegas SemiPro special teamer who tackles his own punt returner. “Oh wait, he’s on my own team? Shit!”
Onto the picks:
NCAA:
South Carolina/Arkansas under 54
NFL:
Philly -3 vs Dallas
Betting against Romo on the road? Yes, plz!
Detroit ML +400 @ Seattle
5 to win 25? Why not?
6 pt Teaser:
ATL -4 vs Redskins
CIN +9 vs BAL
College Football Picks
So Van Tran got me out of bed this morning to talk college football gambling. And of course this led me to force myself to look at lines and now I am putting 25 “fun units” (dollars) on 3 games. If I lose I curse Van Tran for dragging me out of bed. If I win, I’ll let him off with a warning. The picks are
Central Florida (+34.5) @ Oklahoma
Central Florida is a good program. Their only three losses are to Southern Miss, East Carolina, and Miami, with two of those on the road. Back in Vegas last year I would have taken UCF and to cover myself a bit I would have taken the over which is 49.5. That way the only way you lose both is if Ok wins like 42-0.
Texas A&M @ Colorado (over 57)
I like this because the game is at Colorado, which theoretically means they will be dictating the pace a bit and they have a tendency to be involved in high scoring affairs. And A&M can put up numbers themselves.
LSU @ Alabama (-7.5)
Only reason I am putting money on this is because it is the game of the week and it will be give me something to entertain myself with while working at City Sports this afternoon.
NFL to follow tomorrow…
NBA Thoughts
Some quick NBA thoughts on a Friday. I have the Spurs at +1075 to win the NBA title despite their loss in Utah last night.
On a sad note, Utah’s Matt Harpring is likely to retire after this season.
Harpring continues to deal with the effects of a devastating infection that followed ankle surgery in 2008 as well as the effects of multiple knee surgeries throughout his career. Harpring did not join the Jazz for training camp or the preseason, remaining at home with his family in Atlanta.
Harpring was one of my favorite players as a fellow white person, and he basically carried some mediocre Georgia Tech teams through the ACC before turning pro and was a favorite of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. He had a solid career there after being drafted by Orlando in 1998. With Kyle Korver also out, the Jazz are currently without any white Americans for the first time in franchise history.
Some notes from Basketball Prospectus on Cleveland’s early struggles:
Cleveland’s roster is, in many ways, an odd mismatch of talent. Perhaps more than any of the teams we expect to contend for a title, the Cavaliers’ depth chart features some very versatile pieces (James, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Anthony Parker, J.J. Hickson, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas), who are expected to mesh with some very single-dimensional specialists (O’Neal, Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, and Jamario Moon). Creating a system that caters to this kind of lineup is not easy, and it takes a considerable amount of time for a group as eclectic and diverse as this to come together.
The major issue is finding ways for these players to truly complement one another without cannibalizing each other’s opportunities. Integrating O’Neal to this mix has only made this harder, as his unique size and agility (even at his current age and weight) force the Cavaliers to use him in specific ways. One way to take advantage of the varied talents on Cleveland’s roster is to create squads based on specific game situations and team needs. This would allow Mike Brown to plan entire rotations in based on the game situation. Do you want low post scoring? Make sure O’Neal is in the game. Are they clogging the paint with their big, preventing dribble-drive action? Use a lineup that features Ilgauskas. Is the other team getting into the paint too easily while we are on defense? Get your long athletes and strap up and guard someone. These kinds of squad changes are common in high school basketball, where rosters are more piecemeal, and they may make sense for Cleveland.
I wonder how long it will be until an NBA team hires a coach or a GM from Europe. Truehoop had this bit today from Real Madrid’s basketball coach Ettore Messina:
I consider myself a tailor whose job is to create the best possible suit for the team. I’m not a prêt-à-porter guy; I don’t produce those “ready to wear” clothes. I’m like a man who makes a suit that’s supposed to fit its owner perfectly. That means it takes time for me to understand what’s best for the team both defensively and offensively. Like, we can defend a pick-and-roll in many different ways. And the way we defended it with CSKA could be ill-suited for a team that’s not as powerful and at the same time is much quicker than CSKA. We have to adjust our pick-and-roll defense, adjust principles of defensive rotations, etc. It’s my job to define through experiment what we should do….
Figuring all this out takes a while and in the meantime we’re not playing consistently and sometimes lose games.
It sounds like Messina would be a great fit in Cleveland, or any other team that’s going to be looking for a coach and would like to avoid the mistakes of college coaches past.
They’re not choosing success in Memphis, where the Grizzlies are off to a 1-4 start and are probably the worst defensive team in the league. I love this quote from GM Chris Wallace on Allen Iverson:
We had some discussions with him [Iverson], but basically it’s like it is with all players. You come in, lets see what you can do, let’s see how it fits in, maybe its starting, maybe its coming off the bench, let the coach determine how he feels like he can best exploit your talents and we’ll go from there.
Well that’s great, Chris. You’re the GM of an NBA team, meaning your roster is only 15 players deep. Maybe it would have been a good idea to have this conversation with your coach and Iverson before you signed him? Maybe your marquee free agent wouldn’t be in the press saying things like this after the 5th game:
Q. Do you understand what Hollins is trying to do by gradually bringing you along?
Iverson: I understand what he’s doing. But he’s seen the things I’ve done. He knows I’ve never come off the bench in my whole career. He knows that’s not something I’m accustomed to. He knows that’s not something I would want to do. …Everybody knows that’s not something I want to do.
Q. Did Griz brass tell you the franchise was rebuilding?
Iverson: No. Nobody ever said anything about rebuilding. You know I wouldn’t have come to a team, at 34 years old, that was in a rebuilding process. I’m trying to win a championship. I thought I would have won a championship by now. I didn’t come here for no money. I didn’t come here for another scoring title or an All-Star game. I’ve done all that stuff. I want to win. If we are not trying to win, I have a problem. I’m assuming we are trying to win.”
Now admittedly, Iverson’s an idiot for thinking that the Grizzlies had a chance to win anything besides the NBA lottery or the 8th seed in the playoffs this season, but that’s not his job. If Chris Wallace really thought his team had a chance to be good this season, he’s somehow a worse GM than I thought, and if not why did he sign Iverson in the first place?
Thursday/Friday Links
“Mr. Steinbrenner deserves another championship.” – Joe Girardi
Halloween winners on the subway in Boston.
I love this headline: FAT footballers to receive free Big Macs in Thai sponsorship deal. Somehow, I’m not sure this is exactly the best idea…
Thailand’s top footballers will receive free burgers as part of their new three-year, £545,000 sponsorship deal with the fast food giant McDonald’s.
According to the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), McDonald’s will provide £450,000 in cash and the rest in products in exchange for shirt sponsorship for the next three years, starting this month.
And in case you were wondering, soccer from random countries is entertaining.
If I can read weird text correctly, I believe Botev pulled off a late 1-0 win, but it’s not the goals we’re interested in. No sir, it’s the rioting. Not only did players and backroom staff from both teams decamp to the pitch for some punching, shoving, and colourful language, but the fans in the stands got in on the act as well, setting fire to random bits of the stadium.
This is what I believe to be the first mention & link to a story about Larry Bird since this blog’s inception.
The Warriors fail at hazing.
Some thoughts on 2009’s best fielders in baseball. That Pujols guy is pretty good.
Lastly, this just about ruined my day.
