December
29, 2004: NFL Week 16 Commentary and Analysis
By Ahchie
Christmas Edition
This is the time of year when we usually see special, expanded “holiday”
editions of everything. For the weekly commentary, however, this week will
be a special, limited Christmas edition. While the BMTG NFL commentary will
not take the entire week off, like some NFL teams chose to do, this will be
a shorter edition than usual.
The Best of the Worst
For
the second time this season, Miami was involved in a battle to establish who
is the best of the worst. In week 12, Miami battled San Francisco to see who
was the best 1 and 9 team in the league. Miami won that match behind the legendary
leadership of A.J. Feeley. This week, Miami took on Cleveland to see who
was the best 3 and 11 team. While neither team wanted the victory in this
sloppy, ugly and painful to watch Sunday night game, Miami reluctantly kicked
a field goal at the end to win 10 to 7, proving that they are the best of
the worst. After Dave Wannestadt guided these same Dolphins to a 1 and 8 record,
interim coach Jim Bates has been a respectable 3 and 3.
Play to Win
John
Madden hit it on the donut when he criticized teams for not playing their
best players in an effort to win every game. He did not like Philadelphia
coach Andy Reid’s decision to deactivate Brian Westbrook before the
game and only play Donovan McNabb for only one series, along with Reid’s
whole approach to the game, treating it like a pre-season exhibition. Echoing
what the commentary said in week 13 about
trying to avoid the chance of injury, Madden said that as soon as you are
afraid to play because you might get hurt it is time to get out of football.
The BMTG expects Philadelphia to come out very flat when they finally play
a meaningful game again.
Bonus Coverage
After the Carolina – Tampa Bay game, we got to see the end of the Dallas
– Washington game, then, in a move of sheer brilliance, we got to see
the end of the Seattle – Arizona game, which featured one minute and
twenty seconds of kneel-downs by the Seahawks. After the commercials, we got
even more bonus coverage of the game, showing the players running off the
field.
Week 16 Eli Manning Tough Times Photo:
week 14 eli photo
week 12 eli photo
Loves to Hear Himself Talk
During the Cleveland – Miami disaster, sideline reporter Suzy Kolber
spoke with Browns President and CEO John Collins about their upcoming coaching
decision, asking, “What’s the game plan?”
Collins replied, “Well, the game plan is we’ve done our due diligence. We’re excited about a couple of candidates that are out there. We’re going to go to a more traditional model with a G.M. to lead the football organization and then let that G.M. identify the head coach.”
This is a classic case of someone who loves to hold meetings and loves to hear himself talk at said meetings. This is also a case of someone who uses many words to convey few thoughts.
Questions for Mike Martz
Mike Martz is becoming legendary for his tendency to make horrible calls.
Each week we will pose a new question to Martz. At the end of the season we
will compile his errors into an open letter.
This week's question:
Why did you call all of your timeouts before the end of halftime when it was obvious that you would still not get the ball back? Philadelphia had first down with 42 seconds left and were content to run the clock out. You took two timeouts and forced Philadelphia’s exhibition quarterback to kneel down three times before the half could come to an end. Was the purpose of this to get Philadelphia’s yards per carry number down? Koy Detmer was credited with three runs for a total of –3 yards on the “drive.”
Fantasy Notes
While Throcksmorton had a dream match up of Indianapolis against
San Diego, Ahchie had the nightmare of guessing who would play and who would
not. Throcksmorton used nine players from that one game, accounting for 2,651
of his 3,019 points for the week.
Meanwhile,
Ahchie was expecting Willis McGahee to sit and Warrick Dunn to get limited
playing time. Brian Westbrook, who is completely healthy, was expected to
play along with Donovan McNabb for at least a half. The Rams had prepared
all week to face Westbrook. In the end, McGahee played like he had not been
injured the week before, Warrick Dunn was a featured player all game, Brian
Westbrook was deactivated before the Monday night game, and Donovan McNabb
played for only one series.
Brother Nature was also burned by players sitting out when there had been little indication during the week that they would be out. Fred Taylor, listed as questionable due to an ankle injury, and Onterrio Smith, listed as probable due to illness, are on teams that are in the middle of the fight for a playoff spot and both did not play. Both teams went on to lose, although Smith’s replacement, Michael Bennett, had a very good game and played like he had been the starter all season.