October
19, 2005: NFL Commentary, Week 6
By White Russian
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Still Perfect
The dream of two perfect seasons - one undefeated and the other winless -
is still alive, as Indianapolis won again and Houston lost again. About David
Carr, who is being sacked at a record pace through one fourth of the season,
Mike Patrick on Sunday Night Football said, "If Carr is sacked 115 times
this season he will need a face transplant."
While
Seattle was beating up on Houston, the Sunday night crew kept saying how great
a team Seattle is. Leading 35 to 10 in the 4th quarter, Seattle running backs
Maurice Morris and Leonard Weaver entered the game and looked just like Shaun
Alexander running on Houston at will. Seattle ran for over 300 yards and seeing
Morris and Weaver run you would think that on this night Seattle could have
handed the ball to any of the BMTG Big Four and they would have had the same
success. When Morris scored on an easy touchdown run, Joe Theismann noted
that either Seattle has the five best offensive linemen to ever play the game
or the Texans defense needs some work. The Sunday crew was ready to put Seattle
among the tops in the entire league - possibly even higher than Indianapolis.
The thing is, you can not begin to judge how good Seattle is when they are
going up against a bad team. Obviously Seattle has a good team, but few conclusions
can come from a game against the 2005 Houston Texans. Coming into the game
Morris had run for 20 yards in the first three games and did not have a carry
in the last two. Against Houston, Morris ran for 104 yards.
NBA Dress Code
It
would be nice if the NBA players would just shut up about being expected to
dress respectfully when engaged in team or league business. Common sense should
tell these players that they are paid ridiculous sums of money to play a game
and their employer is making a reasonable request. The average working man
can not wear whatever he wants when on the job. The sign that shows that some
players will never get it - Marcus Camby and Brevin Knight said that if a
dress code is implemented, players should receive stipends for vouchers to
offset clothing costs. That is just another sure way to alienate fans who
have to provide their own work clothes on a much smaller salary.
Old School
While
the Angels looked flat and uninspired, the White Sox pulled off the incredible.
Not only did their starters throw four consecutive complete games, they almost
threw five in a row. Out of five games, the starters threw every inning except
for 2/3 of an inning in game 1. In the regular season, White Sox starters
combined for a total of 9 complete games. The 1917 White Sox combined for
a total of 78 complete games. Jose Contreras, who bears a resemblance to John
Coffey in The Green Mile, looked like he was constantly on the verge of crying.
Mike Martz Revisited
Last season the BMTG chronicled the week to week coaching by Mike Martz of
the St. Louis Rams in order to determine if the excessive criticism typically
leveled at him was actually justified. After following his moves the whole
season, the BMTG concluded that there was enough evidence to declare that
the criticism is warranted. Despite his continued incompetence, Martz is still
the head coach of the Rams and the BMTG is following up one year later to
see if he has improved after receiving the BMTG’s open
letter. This week's analysis:
The media and Rams fans could not blame this week's loss on Martz, as he is out indefinitely and Joe Vitt is serving as the interim coach.
Return of the Meaningless Injury Report?
The injury report has long been useless, as teams do not accurately report
injuries and the only people even looking at the report are people in fantasy
leagues. The BMTG will attempt to examine the actual usefulness of the injury
report by looking at the report released on Wednesday and comparing it to
what actually happens in the games. A doubtful status means that a player
has a 75% chance of sitting out, questionable is supposed to be 50%, and probable
is 25%.
As the season has progressed, teams have been consistent in their reporting methods. While some teams list very few players, other teams list an excessive number of players. Many teams seem to prefer sticking with only two categories of injuries - either questionable or out. More detailed injury report analysis will return next week.
Fantasy Notes
Egregious Errors and sanctions were voted on and have been posted.
Steamboy is one Egregious Error away from having to take a spin on the Sanction
Wheel.
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