October
25, 2004: NFL Week 7 Commentary and Analysis
By Ahchie
Announcers Miss Good Game
Sam
Rosen, play by play, and Bill Maas, the color man, were the announcers for
the Philadelphia – Cleveland shootout, but much of the time it seemed
as though they weren’t paying much attention. Attributing wrong names
to players from the first two plays of the game set the tone for the day,
first as Todd Pinkston caught a long bomb that Rosen said was Terrell Owens,
followed by a touchdown catch by Chad Lewis that Rosen said was third string
tight end Mike Bartrum.
After
Terrell Owens caught his first touchdown of the day he threw the ball at a
sign on the wall that said, “T.O. has B.O.” Rosen didn’t
seem to notice the sign as he said the Owens was throwing the ball at the
fans and it probably is not a good idea to rile them up. Maas pointed out
the sign to clear up the confusion for his partner. On Owens’ second
touchdown he ripped a sign from the wall that read “It T.akes O.ne to
know one.” This resulted in a 15-yard penalty for un-sportsmanlike conduct.
The announcers didn’t notice that sign until the second or third replay.
Late in the game, when all attention should be on the game at hand, Rosen
finally notices that Kansas City was blowing out Atlanta, exclaiming, “Look
at that score!” First, that score had been cycling through all day as
the Chiefs ran all over the Falcons, and second, that is not the time to be
looking at other scores when your own game is going down to the wire.
Taken individually, each of these examples is easily explained away as almost every announcer slips up once in a while. But taken as a whole, they show a lack of attention and a lack of professionalism. Why do we care? We care because we have to listen to them.
Bill Maas did have the quote of the day, however, when he was describing the need for Cleveland to stay patient while the Eagles were throwing the ball anywhere they pleased, saying, “The birds may soar, but ground hogs don’t get sucked into jet engines.”
Quarterbacks are Football Players, Too
The NFL needs to stop treating quarterbacks like fragile glass. The roughing
the passer penalty has officially gotten out of hand. Late in the fourth quarter,
with Cleveland trying one last drive and facing third and long, the Eagles
were called for a roughing the passer penalty that gave the drive new life
and ultimately led to the game tying touchdown. On the play, the Philadelphia
defender had leapt into the air in an attempt to block Jeff Garcia’s
pass. When he came down he lightly brushed against Garcia, who then flopped
backwards a la Vlade Divac. It is good to protect the players and it is good
to protect the quarterbacks from vicious and late hits. But it is also important
to remember that quarterbacks are still football players and they understand
that when you play football, sometimes you will take a hit. On this particular
play, the quarterback didn’t even take a hit. The defender is placed
in a near impossible situation where he has to run hard at the quarterback
while he still has the ball and somehow avoid even brushing against him when
the ball is gone. Knocking the quarterback down when the defender clearly
could have stopped should be a penalty, but the interpretation of the penalty
has become silly and the intent of the rule has been forgotten.
Interference Penalty is Offensive
Another
penalty that needs revision is the pass interference call. While the penalty
for defensive pass interference can be crippling to a defense, the penalty
for offensive interference is far too tame making the two penalties out of
balance. In the fourth quarter of the Philadelphia game, Cleveland was called
for offensive pass interference. The result was a 10-yard penalty. Had the
call been on the defender, however, the penalty would have been about 30 yards,
based on where the penalty occurred. The disparity can be even more apparent
when the interference is on a long bomb to the end zone. The potential is
there for the defense to be tagged with a 50-yard penalty, while the most
the offense is faced with is 10 yards. Obviously the penalty needs to remain
the way it is on the defense to prevent defenders from committing interference
every time they are beat. But when there is clearly going to be an interception,
there is little penalty to the offensive team that interferes. The penalty
for offensive pass interference should be on a scale based on the length of
the pass attempt. If the attempt is a short one (less than 20 yards) then
the penalty should remain 10 yards. If the attempt is of medium range (20
to 40 yards) then the penalty should increase to 20 yards. And if the attempt
is more than 40 yards, the penalty should be increased to 30 yards.
Not a True Fan
Among
other things, John Kerry claims to be a big Red Sox fan. He has even gone
so far as to say on several occasions that he was at game six of the World
Series in 1986, sitting just 30 yards from Bill Buckner. The news has now
come out that Kerry could not have been at the game because he was attending
a banquet at the World Trade Center in South Boston honoring New Mexico governor
Toney Anaya and Alex Rodriguez. Kerry did attend game seven, which means his
memory has somehow clouded to make himself think that the game he saw was
the infamous game that Red Sox fans are reminded of year after year after
year. Still, how can one get confused? Even if he forgot that the Buckner
play happened in game six, he would still remember if he was there for that
play or not. The other question is why does he feel the need to lie about
it? Is he just a compulsive liar, or does he just feel an obsession with being
all things to all people at all times?
Other gaffes by Kerry:
This sad tale is another example of where any one of these mistakes taken individually can be explained away. But taken as a whole, it shows a concerted effort to mislead people into thinking he is something that he thinks people want him to be.
More Overdone Fox Coverage
It is good that Fox keeps reminding us that they will be covering the Daytona
500 and the Super Bowl next February – during the 8th inning of game
two of the World Series I was really worried that those two events were not
going to be on television. It is good that Fox found a way to relieve that
particular stress.
Fox
displays way too many meaningless stats, such as no team has ever done such
and such when all of these unrelated events all happen before the clock strikes
midnight. There is a stat for everything, but that does not make it interesting
or compelling. Too much was made of the fact that Jason Varitek hit the first
triple by a catcher in a World Series since 1996. First off, triples aren’t
that common anyway. Secondly, catchers are generally not the type of players
to hit triples, as many catchers are slower. And thirdly, 1996 was not that
long ago. Is that stat really that interesting that they had to repeat it
numerous times throughout the game and then ask Tek about it in the post game
interview?
Why
does Fox seem to refuse to show the ceremonial first pitch? We had to see
Bucky Dent multiple times during game seven of the American League championship.
But, unless the BMTG has missed it, Fox has yet to show Yaz throwing out the
pitch before game one or the trio of Bobby Doerr, Dom Dimaggio, and Johnny
Pesky before game two.
Why does Fox keep bringing out older folks to do patronizing interviews with? Fox is treating these older people as mere novelties. Yes, we know it has been a long time since the Sox have won. Yes, we realize that all of these old people have never witnessed that Sox winning a World Series. We got it.
It is good to see that the Play of the Game can continue to exist, thanks to the new movie, Polar Express. It would have been a shame for there to be no one to sponsor the Play of the Game.
Phrases ending with “…since 1918” should be banned due to reckless overuse by Fox.
Anything is Possible
In previous commentaries, the following teams were determined to be out of
contention for the Super Bowl, based on their play: Indianapolis and Green
Bay for their lack of ability to play defense and three more teams (San Francisco,
Miami, and Tampa Bay) were determined to have no chance of making the playoffs.
But, based on what the Boston Red Sox did to the Yankees, the BMTG has officially
determined that those five teams are back in the Super Bowl hunt. All teams
shall remain in contention until they are mathematically eliminated.
Kind of Interesting Stat
The only touchdowns scored in the New England – New York Jets game came
in the final two minutes of the first half, when each team scored one.
Number 38
Boston
should retire Curt Schilling’s number 38 on the same day he retires.
The man has become a living legend.
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:
The first question that comes to mind is “How in the world do you lose to the winless Miami Dolphins?” Even Buffalo and Cincinnati managed to beat the Fins. The official question for this week, submitted by Brother Nature is, "Why did you accept the holding penalty with 30 seconds left in the first half, giving Miami another third down attempt which resulted in a 42 yard touchdown pass and a jolt of confidence for the struggling Dolphins?" If Martz had declined the penalty, Miami would have faced fourth down and would probably have attempted a long field goal of 49 yards. The longest field goal this season for Miami is 45 yards.
Michael Irvin Update
Michael was back to his jovial, demonstrative self this week. Again, he has
shown no signs of racism and it has been determined by the BMTG that this
portion of the weekly commentary is no longer necessary.
Fantasy Notes
Priest
Holmes had the best rushing performance of the season with 561 points before
spraining his ankle. His backup, Derrick Blaylock, did almost as good, with
518 points.
The best trade of the season was made by Ahchie, who switched from Atlanta's defense to Baltimore's. The Falcons got thrashed by the Chiefs for a negative 315 points, while the Ravens racked up 505 points against the ever struggling Bills.
Ahman
Green continues to frustrate Throcksmorton, who dropped him in favor of Richie
Anderson of the Cowboys. While Anderson ended up with 98 points, Green had
a very nice 460 points. Just a few weeks ago, Throck had dropped Tiki Barber
for Green. Barber went on a two-week rampage that resulted in 926 points,
while Green's two-week output was an unimpressive 208 points.
Brother
Nature finally had a tight end go for more than 30 points in a week, as Doug
Jolley exploded for 212 points.