January 10, 2005: NFL
Week 17 / Wild Card Commentary and Analysis
By Ahchie
Wild
Card Bonus - Being Randy
Randy Moss is doing either one of two things:
1. He craves the attention and knows that whatever he does will get that attention. He really is not bothered by any of the coverage because it is exactly what he wants to hear from the media. He likes it when he is the topic of conversation and it doesn’t matter to him if people are praising him or saying he is a class-less idiot.
-or-
2. He is just plain dumb. The only thing he knows how to do is run in the direction they tell him to then stop and catch the football, a la Forrest Gump. The only thing the Minnesota fans are missing are the “Run Randy Run” signs.
The BMTG has concluded that Randy Moss is not dumb in the Forrest Gump sense, but that he is an idiot who shows no class. He has to know that the things he does will get scrutinized more than things done by others. Knowing this, he continues to act and speak in a manner that will get more attention. He knows what he is doing and he is enjoying it.
More Wild Card Bonus - Being Darrell
After
week 10, the BMTG football commentary noted how
Seattle receivers are continually blamed for dropping passes, while quarterback
Matt Hasselbeck does not get criticized for his poor throws that lead to those
dropped balls. The BMTG noted that this tendency was on display to the world
during Seattle’s wild card loss to the Rams. However now it has become
clear that the true target of criticism is not the entire receiving corps,
but just one player – Darrell Jackson.
Early in the game, Hasselbeck threw behind Jackson, who reached back and almost made the catch. Instead, the ball bounced off his hands and into a defender’s arms for the interception. Joe Theismann tried to say that the pass was right on the numbers and has to be caught in a big game like this. While the ball did touch the top corner of the numbers as Jackson was reaching back, there is no way Theismann can claim that Hasselbeck’s pass was right on the donut. On another early drive, a replay was shown of Hasselbeck looking Jackson’s way and Jackson was shown running straight down the field, never looking back to see if a pass was coming. On another play, Jackson was shown in a similar light and criticized for not paying attention. Each time, Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann were all over Jackson, harshly criticizing him and saying he had no focus and his head was not in the game.
Fast-forward
to the late stages of the game when Jackson is closing in on ten catches for
the game and already has over 100 yards receiving and you hear Mike Patrick
saying what a great game Jackson is having. Then on Seattle’s final
play of the game, needing a touchdown to tie the game and force overtime,
Bobby Engram drops the pass in the end zone. Neither player, Hasselbeck or
Engram, was criticized. According to Theismann and Patrick, Hasselbeck made
a great play and the pass was just a tough catch to make. The fact is that
whether it was a great pass or not, the ball was in Engram’s hands and
he dropped it. If that were Jackson dropping the ball, you would hear about
what an awful player he is and how he single-handedly cost Seattle the game.
Darrell Jackson finished the game with 12 catches, 128 yards, and a touchdown. He had twice as many catches as the next player, tight end Itula Mili. If Jackson is such a horrible player, why do they continually throw to him all game long? Jerry Rice had no catches in the game. If Seattle is so tired of Jackson dropping the ball, why don’t they try to throw it to the Hall of Fame bound and sure-handed Rice. Additionally, it is suspected that on the play where Jackson ran straight down the field and never looked back, he was probably running the route that he was supposed to be running. It could be that he made a mistake, but based on how the game was unfairly covered it is hard to tell what happened on the play.
And Now For the Week 17 Commentary...
Meaningless Week?
Exactly half of the 16 games this week had no meaning in terms of affecting
playoff match-ups. Of the 32 teams, 22 had nothing to play for.
Explosive Offense
Repeatedly throughout the Rams – Jets game, the St. Louis offense was
referred to as “high-powered” and “explosive”. They
were said to be able to “score in the blink of an eye.” Their
firepower was relentlessly touted and their quick strike capability was noted
early and often. While the truly explosive offense this season is the Indianapolis
Colts, the BMTG used the Jets – Rams game to determine just how explosive
St. Louis is.
The
Rams had 15 possessions in the game. Of those 15 possessions, there were three
turnovers (two interceptions and one fumble), seven punts, and five scores
(four touchdowns and the game-winning field goal). Of the four touchdowns,
three were quick strikes. The first quick strike took only 1 minute and 16
seconds and covered 80 yards on three plays. The second quick strike was a
one play, seven-second drive that consisted of one play for 44 yards. The
third quick strike was a five-play drive for 68 yards that included a 35-yard
penalty on the Jets and a 20-yard touchdown run. The fourth touchdown scored
came on an 8 play, 59-yard drive that consumed four minutes and forty nine
seconds and would not be characterized as a quick strike. Based on the game
observed, the BMTG has concluded that the Rams have a quick strike offense,
but it is also one that too often sputters and grinds to a halt. Combine that
with the mismanagement by the head coach and the Rams go from a team that
should be explosive to one that is sometimes dangerous, but not dangerous
enough to be feared.
Before and After
Why do all before and after photos show a depressed, drably dressed, unsmiling
“before” picture and a happy, sharply dressed, smiling “after”
picture? The only fair comparison is to have the same expression and similar
style clothes, unless the clothes are the focus of the before and after.
Why Bother?
Both Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James played one series, then were removed
for the duration. That one series consisted of only three plays – Manning
threw incomplete, James ran backwards two yards, then Manning completed a
six-yard pass. The question is, why bother playing at all. If a player starts
a game, he should play at least a quarter, if not the whole half. What good
will that one set of three downs do in keeping a player sharp for the upcoming
playoffs?
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:
Relating to your play selection at end of first half, when you had a first and goal at the two-minute warning. Why not run the ball and use some clock? The first play was a reverse resulting in a run out of bounds and a loss of three yards, the second play was an incomplete pass, and the third play was an intercepted pass. Hardly any time was run off the clock, giving the Jets plenty of time to do something. In the end it did not matter as the Jets punted and you used one play to score on a 44-yard pass, leaving the Jets one minute to burn.
Fantasy Notes
Congratulations go to The Diesel, who won the BMTG Football tournament.
The Diesel was able to maintain high scores in the final weeks when managing
teams became more of a guessing game. The Diesel won convincingly by a margin
of 1,274 points.
Even
considering that the final week is a difficult week to determine who will
or will not play, two egregious errors were made. The first was by Throcksmorton,
who did not make any trades, despite being within range of second place. As
a result of making no moves, Throcksmorton carried the same 9 players from
the Indianapolis vs. San Diego dream game that netted so many points in week
16. With both teams playing meaningless games in week 17, many of those players
did not play or played only one series. Notable from that group are Peyton
Manning (4 points), Edgerrin James (minus 4 points), Drew Brees (0 points),
LaDainian Tomlinson (0 points), Antonio Gates (0 points), and Brandon Stokley
(0 points). That is six players with a grand total of zero points. Green Bay
was locked into their playoff position, but their coach had stated that the
starters would play in order to stay sharp. Even though he did not play the
whole game, Brett Favre ended up with 308 points. Other reasonable options
were Eli Manning (261 points), Vinny Testaverde (252 points) and Tiki Barber
(358 points). Team Throck's total for the week was 847 points, and 460 of
that came from one player (Julius Jones). Anytime an owner finishes a week
with a total below 1,000 points, regardless of how injured the players are
or what misinformation was relied on is considered egregious. Because this
was week 17 and it is difficult to predict who will play, this error went
down as .75 of an error.
The other egregious error was by Brother Nature, who traded away Corey Dillon in favor of Kevin Faulk on BMTG #1. While playing a meaningless game in terms of playoff positioning, New England tends to not sit players during the final week, as Coach Belichick stated early in the week. Going into the game, Dillon was only 81 yards away from 1,600 yards rushing on the season. He was also just 25 yards behind Curtis Martin, who finished the season leading the league in rushing. Kevin Faulk, on the other hand, did not play in week 16 and was listed as questionable for the game against San Francisco. The Diesel stated before the games started that this should be considered an egregious error if Brother Nature insisted on making the trade. In the end, Dillon played and ran for 116 yards and a touchdown, finishing second in the AFC in rushing, behind Martin. When Dillon was not in, New England gave the ball to Patrick Pass. Kevin Faulk did not play for the second straight week.
