Super Bowl Blowout

Just some thoughts I had about Sunday's Game.

-Steelers CB Ike Taylor is going to have to be the Steelers best defensive player sunday. He's going to be matched up against Larry Fitzgerald alot. Taylor's come a long way from being benched during the 2006 season. Along with other Steeler corners Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend, he's had a fantastic year. 

Taylor's best attribute as a corner and specifically for covering Larry Fitzgerald is his height.  Taller than most Cornerbacks at 6'2, Taylor has demonstrated the ability, when asked to, play physical man to man coverage and jam receivers at the line. Often though, Taylor is not often asked to play man to man, but rather zone coverage in defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau's zone blitz scheme. However, I believe Ike Taylor could flourish in a role like the one Packers cornerback Al Harris has been asked to play in the last couple of seasons. Harris makes a living off jamming and rerouting receivers at the line of scrimmage. (oddly enough, Harris's team, The Packers, are switching to a defensive scheme very similar to the one Taylor currently plays in with the Steelers)

I believe the Steelers will obviously mix up coverage looks throughout the game, but the one I think they'll continually go back to is one were Taylor's on the line with Fitzgerald, but has a Safety clouding over the top of those two. That way, Taylor can pretty much do what he wants with Fitzgerald within the five yard bump zone, i.e. jump routes inside or outside, play trail coverage etc., with the knowledge that there's a Safety behind him if Fitzgerald beats him at the line. Watch for Lebeau to mix up this "cloud" look with zone coverages on the other side to force Kurt Warner to read the enitre field, not just one side of it.

The most important aspect to the Super Bowl will be how well Ike Taylor can reroute Larry Fitzgerald. The Steeler's shouldn't care much about what Fitzgerald does after he's been rerouted by Taylor. The important thing should be that Fitzgerald was rerouted at all. On almost every play, Fitzgerald is Warner's first passing option, and when Warner can't consistently throw to his first option, that could give the Steelers the extra split second they need for Woodley and Harrison to hurry and sack Warner.

-Cardinals G Deuce Lutui, C Lyle Sendlein and G Reggie Wells all have to be able to get some movement on Steelers Nose Tackle Casey Hampton. Any combination of Lutui with Sendlien or Wells with Sendlein needs to end with Hampton being moved and one of those players scraping either James Farrior or Larry Foote on the second level. The Cardinal's won't run it much, but believe me, if you just tee up the pass against the Steelers, then your Quarterback will end up hurt.

-Cris Collinsworth pointed out in the Cardinal's Wild Card Game against the Falcons that Cardinal's defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast had given inside/middle linebacker Gerald Hayes responsibility for just one gap in that game. Hayes has played exceptionally since Pendergast made the change, because it simplified things for Hayes and he was able to quickly diagnose plays and run to them without thought of much else. The Cardinal's have lots of talented players on defense, but many times I think they're effectiveness has been hampered by Pendergast's over-aggresive play calling. I have doubts about Pendergast's ability as a coordinator but he's done a smart job with Gerald Hayes.

-That said, I still think Pendergast does more bad than good for this Cardinal's defense. If he blitzes on Sunday as much as he has this season, I believe his corners will struggle matched up with no help against the Steeler's receivers.

-Steelers Safety Ryan Clark is one of the best Safeties in football. There was an article in Friday's Washington Post that talked about Clark's connection with his former team the Redskins. Clark had previously played with Sean Taylor in Washington, and Taylor was known to make big plays, but not without being caught out of position in other plays because of his freelancing ways. Ryan Clark helped fill the gaps in coverage that Sean Taylor left when he went to freelance, and he's continued to play that same way with the freelancing Troy Polamalu. Clark has great instincts with unbelievable range, and these skills help nurture Safeties the like of Polamalu and Taylor because he allows them to be great. 

The best comparison to another sport I can come up with to talk about the effectiveness of Clark's play is to compare him to Bobby Orr's defense partner. Orr's coaches knew they couldn't put another player like Bobby (not that there was one) out on the ice the same time as Bobby, because they'd have two defenseman out of position all the time because they tried to make plays. Orr needed a player who was his exact opposite: not very flashy but steady and did his assignments right. Thats what Clark is to Polamalu.

Baseball Notes-1/28

-Just when I talk about Don Sutton rotting away with the insufferable Bob Carpenter in Washington, news today broke that Don Sutton will be rejoining the Braves to call their games on the radio. So whose going to take Sutton's place as the color man in Washington: former Baseball Tonight analyst and Best Damn Sports Show host Rob Dibble. No more awkward celebrity interviews for you Mr. Dibble.

-I know there's been a ton of Braves talk around here lately, but then this was broken by dugoutcentral.com: The Yankees, with their surplus of outfielders could be talking to the Braves about dealing OF Xavier Nady. 

It sure seems John Scheurholz just refuses to rebuild with this club. I see them as the fourth best team in the NL East, Xavier Nady or no Xavier Nady. Last year they caught some bad breaks, but this team isn't much better than eighty-five wins to me.

-MLB.com reports a story that with ace setup man Pat Neshek out for 2009 with Tommy John surgery, the Twins setup job is between Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain.

I slightly favor the Twins to win the AL Central with whomever they choose to setup Joe Nathan. But, it would've been nice for Ron Gardenhire to know his offense would only have to scratch out a few runs until the seventh inning behind a remarkably solid starting staff and then #*BAM*-$Neshek and Nathan. 

-While I'm on the Twins, it's still hard for me not to imagine Twins RF Delmon Young not  becoming an elite hitter someday. It'll be a miracle if he DOESN'T break out, and stroke it all over the place this year.

Baseball Beat

-I promised you stuff on Tom Glavine and here it is. For those of you Nationals fans that were hoping Tommy Glavine would forgo returning with the Braves in order to try and reunite with long time Braves president Stan Kasten in Washington, think again. After reading about all that went down between Kasten and Glavine in John Feinstein's excellent "Living On The Black", their relationship is not as close as one might surmise. As Braves team president in 2002, Stan Kasten was heavily involved in the talks with Tom Glavine on a new contract. Feinstein described the negotiations between the two sides, particulurly between Glavine and Kasten, as being of "genuine anger". Glavine felt he deserved a four year deal, and the Braves were only willing to go up to three, along with ignoring deferred payment due to Glavine.

-Not that the Nationals would even want to fork over the money to get Glavine, and potentially sell some season ticket packages. Washington, so far this offseason has refused to sign free agent LF/1B Adam Dunn, in a move that makes gobs of sense for the Nationals. The only way the Nationals won't lose one hundred games this year is if they increase their offense, and the easiest most sensible way to do that would be to sign Dunn. Alot of people used to talk about the Nationals parkway rivals, the Orioles, of having confederate money. Well the National's may very well have confederate money, but we'll never know if they refuse top flash it. 

-The Arbitration hearing I'd most like to sit in on: Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks. Just how much do non-partial arbiters award a player in arbitration for "tools" and "untapped ability"? I would guess not much, and thats why Weeks and his agent better scramble to get their preferred $2.8 million number closer to the Brewer's preferred $2 million number. The good news for the Weeks camp: Since Doug Melvin became GM of the Brewers in 2002, the Brewers have not had one arbitration hearing.

-Say what you will about GM Dayton Moore's tenure in Kansas City. He did right by avoiding arbitration with right handed starter Zack Greinke and signing him to a four year $38 million deal. The Royals have been very patient with the twenty-five year old Greinke, as he's battled through mental disorders and an experiment as a closer. Not that they had a choice: Right now, Greinke is looking like the gem of former GM Allard Baird's haul, and that is pretty rare in itself.

Van Wieren was a Class Act

-I decided to look at the online Atlanta Journal Constitution today to see what the status of Tom Glavine's talk of returning to the Braves was. Before I could get to Glavine, something caught my eye that immediately took my mind off the forty two year old lefthander, and onto the man that helped broadcast almost his entire career.

If you hadn't heard by now, former TBS Superstation Braves Announcer Pete Van Wieren has decided to retire from broadcasting. Yes, this news came back in October, but it slipped so far underneath mine and everybody else's radar that I only learned about it just now. Van Wieren had good reason to retire. He saw TBS switch their format from covering the Atlanta Braves exclusively, to showing games baseball wide in accordance with TBS getting the rights to broadcast Baseball playoff games. Earlier in 2008, Van Wieren's long time radio and television partner Skip Caray died. (Yes, he's Harry's son) Even while Skip Caray was alive, he hadn't been given the opportunity to call games for TBS and their new format. Van Wieren saw the writing on the wall and retired and you can't blame him for it.

But with the retirement of Pete Van Wieren, we've seen some of the last remnants of a great sports broadcasting tradition: Atlanta Braves Baseball on TBS. In 1976, TBS Superstation owner Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in order to keep the team in Atlanta. He immediately put them on his TBS Superstation which soon started to be picked up by cable companies throughout the United States, many of them notably outside of the southeast of the United States. With Braves games being shown regularly on TBS, the Braves gained a sizable fan base outside of their traditional media markets, and the voices they heard were Van Wieren's and Caray's. 

One of the things I enjoyed about the broadcasts Van Wieren and Caray did, was that they treated it like a radio broadcast. What I mean, is if you have ever listened to a baseball game on the radio (and chances are, if your reading this then you have) you'll notice that the two announcers aren't so fixed into the constraints of one broadcaster giving the play by-play, and the other giving color commentary. One will usually act as the play by play man with the other giving color for one inning and then they'd switch the next. Well since, Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren also announced Braves games on the radio together, they just treated their television broadcasts together like they would a radio broadcast. What you got from that were announcers who, because they didn't feel confined to traditional sports broadcasting roles, became very colorful with their announcing of the games. You didn't mind watching a blowout when these guys were announcing because you knew they'd come up with some conversation that would draw your interest and often times make you laugh.

But they also took their job very seriously, and while neither ever played the game seriously, both would offer great insight into the game. More often than not, I came away from watching a Braves broadcast on TBS learning something about Baseball that I hadn't known before.

With another former TBS Braves announcer, Don Sutton rotting away in Washington with an absolute yawn of a play by play man, Bob Carpenter, I realized that you Braves TBS guys are quickly dying out. Those guys could relate to any generation, because they spoke Baseball, and they spoke about it well. Pete Van Wieren, you'll be missed. 

Looking towards the Offseason

-I believe the Packers factored the playing ability of DE/DT Cullen Jenkins into their decision to switch to a hybrid 3-4/4-3 defense. Mike McCarthy displays a high regard to Jenkins' ability as an overpowering end on running downs as well as his ability to outquick opposing guards on passing downs. Jenkins was arguably the Packer's best defensive player through the first four weeks of the season until he tore his pectoral muscle and was placed on injured reserve. At 6'2, 305 lbs. the Packers coaches (what little of it there is) envision Cullen Jenkins as close to a prototypical 3-4 defensive end. They also  must believe that Jenkins will be ready for training camp so he can absorb the new defensive scheme.

-It should be a  matter of when, not if Giants CB Aaron Ross will be moved to safety. Ross has below average speed for a corner but his lack of speed might be well hidden by a move to Safety. Aaron Ross was abused by Braylon Edwards this past season, often on deep routes were Edwards simply ran by Ross. The Giants must recognize that Ross will have trouble being a corner in this league, much less a number one corner, what the Giants were asking him to be.

-I really doubt that Roger Goodell would approve the sale of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to former 49er's owner and actual Riverboat gambler, Eddie DeBartolo.

The big story here is that the Glazer family is finding financing a European soccer club is not as easy as it looked from across the pond. The Glazer's investment in Manchester United is starting to eat into the money they annually budget for the Buccaneers.

NFC Championship Post Game notes

-Congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals! This is one heck of a talented team, with one heck of a coaching staff. Ken Whisenhunt, Russ Grimm, Todd Haley and Clancy Pendergast all have done a wonderful job!

-The game was won with the offensive line of the Arizona Cardinal's. They were bad in the third quarter but completely redeemed themselves in the fourth. That, and I don't think anybody can cover Larry Fitzgerald. 

-This was like a basketball game. Just coming back was exhausting enough for the Eagles. They didn't seem to have enough left in their tank to close it out. 

-I know I just congratulated Clancy Pendergast, but I feel that he hampers this defense. There's a ton of talent there, but he gets too aggresive with his calls. His aggresiveness in the third quarter backfired big time on him. He should not be having Corners jumping routes on third and long. His guys also take bad angles to the ball, and that really helped the Eagles score some big plays. 

-I shouldn't have been the only one a little disturbed by the big smile on Asante Samuel's face in the post game handshakes. I thought you went to Philly to win a Super Bowl?

-I also shouldn't have been the only one who felt it could still all go wrong for the Cardinal's when Bill Bidwell was on the sideline in the final minute of the game. Lest we not forget they've never won anything under him, and his presence in the Cardinal's organization is a huge reason for that.

-Good effort from the Eagles this season. They have a really good core of young players like SS Quentin Mikell, MLB Stewart Bradley and WR Desean Jackson. This team is set up to win for a while. I don't expect it to happen, but Brian Dawkins should not retire.

NFC Championship Third Quarter Notes

I know I'm only supposed to be coming in on the halves, but we got a game now. I can't deprive of my opinions.

-Clancy Pendergast screwed up big in that quarter. Calling the man under coverage on Kevin Curtis on his huge third and nineteen catch was completely innapropriate. The Safety Francisco misplayed it, but Pendergast was being way too aggresive for a play that had little chance of being converted.

NFC Championship Game Halftime Notes

-Andy Reid is reverting back to his old poor game-managing ways. Can someone explain the rationale in calling a timeout before the third and fourteen play when the Eagles had the ball? The chances of the Eagles converting that play is minimal, and you only give an offense that has burned your defense over and over, another chance to do just that. He should've tried to force the Cardinals to take a timeout. Give Andy Reid an assist for those last three Cardinal points.

-The Cardinals interior offensive line has been great. C Lyle Sendlein, RG Deuce Lutui, and LG Reggie Wells haven't allowed much by Paterson and Bunkley. When those two undersized defensive tackles can't get under the pads of the offensive lineman, their effectiveness is minimized. Consequently, MLB Stewart Bradley isn't getting protection from being blocked by scraping offensive lineman.

-Besides taking a bad angle on a long Kevin Curtis catch and run, Antrel Rolle has been really good. He's a microcosm of the entire Cardinal's defense: Very athletic, that will tend to overpursue and gamble, but will make more good plays than bad.

-McNabb isn't showing me much. He'll never be an accurate passer, but c'mon. This is the worst possible time to be missing your receivers. How does four NFC title game losses sound?

Conference Championship Sunday Notes

Hey Guys! I'm gonna be blogging all day about the Conference Championship games. Stay close, lets watch these games together.

-FOX didn't feel like they had to put their studio show on the site of the NFC Championship game. It was deemed to difficult to fly the pregame show out from Los Angeles to Arizona? If the BCS Title Game and the NFC Title game aren't deemed worthy of flying a crew out to, then what is? I mean, it's not like I'm complaining, it's going to be unwatchable either way, but I just wanna know how devoted they are to this whole 'covering sports' thing.

-Cardinal's OLB Karlos Dansby is completely underrated. S Adrian Wilson had a down year this year, and Dansby really was the teams' best playmaker on defense. Cardinal's defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast relies on Dansby to do alot of different things for this defense.

-Brian Westbrook is dressed today. I could see alot of big plays from the Eagles today because Clancy Pendergast is going to blitz alot today, and Brian Westbrook will pick up alot of it. These Cardinal's corners are good, but nobody's unsusceptible to allowing big plays over the top when they have no Safety help.

-This game is going to be a shootout anyway. Eagles DT's Patterson and Bunkley are pretty good, but I'm still not convinced they can stop the Cardinal's improved running game without blitzing. Expect alot of big plays today from both offenses.

NFL Friday Notes

-Dom Capers is interviewing today for the vacant defensive coordinator position for the Green Bay Packers. It really looks like the Packers want to run at least a 4-3/3-4 hybrid, if not just a base 3-4. Dom Capers was one of the architechts of the 3-4 zone blitzing scheme that has been so successful in Pittsburgh for the last two decades. He famously head coached the Carolina Panthers in their second year of existence using that scheme all the way to the NFC title game. His last job was defensive backs coach for the Patriots this past season. He has experience running a 4-3/3-4 hybrid when he was defensive coordinator in Miami, and he would presumably running that if hired in Green Bay. The Packers also interviewed Jim Haslett, who has experience running a 3-4 scheme when he was linebackers coach in Pittsburgh. Now that one of the hotter 4-3 candidates, Gregg Williams, have been hired off the market to be defensive coordinator in New Orleans, the chances are even higher that the Packers will be running alot of 3-4 next season. 

The Packers could still stay with a 4-3 base if they promote Linebackers coach and Assistant Head Coach Winston Moss to defensive coordinator. They could also hire Eagles Defensive backs coach Sean McDermott as their defensive coordinator. That would be an obvious nod to the success a former Eagles defensive assistant, Steve Spagnuolo, has had a defensive coordinator with the Giants.

The Packers would require a relatively drastic defensive personnel overhaul in going either direction excluding Winston Moss's who would presumably run the same cover one scheme as fired defensive coordinator Bob Sanders. The Packers rarely bitzed in Bob Sanders' scheme, and if they hire McDermott, he would bring over a scheme that blitzes quite liberally to say the least. The Packers tried implementing a little more blitzing into their scheme this past year, but we all know how that worked out. If they hire a 3-4 coordinator, while Ryan Pickett could fit in as a nose tackle and LB's Nick Barnett and Brandon Chillar would fit in well as inside 'backers, AJ Hawk would have trouble fitting in as a pass-rushing outside linebacker. Aaron Kampman would have to bulk up to play as a two gap end and that would certainly take him out of his comfort zone as a high motor 4-3 end.

The Packers defensive problems this past year could be blamed on the numerous injuries suffered by the unit; Atari Bigby, Cullen Jenkins, Al Harris and Nick Barnett all missed significant time this year. But the Packers seem devoted to making drastic changes on defense, and right now those changes appear imminent.

-Understatement of the year coming up: Jim Schwartz has alot growing pains coming up for him as head coach of the Lions. Especially on his own side of the ball, on defense. The Lions under Rod Marinelli fell too often into the trap of acquiring players that knew the Tampa Two scheme Marinelli was a part of in Tampa. Instead of trying to groom young players at a variety of positions on defense, they signed players who fit the scheme, but weren't giving the Lions long term options at those positions that they needed. CB Brian Kelly, 32, who was with Marinelli in Tampa, was benched midway through the year. They also acquired LB Ryan Nece DT Chuck Darby, and DE Dewayne White who all played in Tampa, as well as Travis Fisher who was familiar with the Tampa Two with his time in St. Louis playing under Lovie Smith.

Acquiring cheap veterans who know the playbook fills holes in the lineup but too many of them, especially when a team's not ready to contend, can stunt a team's growth. The Lion's fell into the trap of obeying Rod Marinelli's every wish. He felt like he had to win now with guys he was familiar with, instead of going through the growing pains of familiarizing himself with younger players, and his successor will have to pay for it. 

FOX and CBS make NFL season finales this weekend

And believe me, thats a good thing. This year, the Super Bowl will covered by NBC for the first time in thirteen years when they covered Super Bowl XXX between the Steelers and Cowboys. Now, NBC has obvious flaws to it's NFL coverage,  mainly too many damn commentators on their Sunday wrap-up show, Football Night in America. But this could certainly be worse. They don't crowd their commentators in one little table like FOX and CBS does, so I guess they excel their too. 

NBC does feature Cris Collinsworth, which is a major plus. Collinsworth has this strange idea that football commentators are actually supposed to watch game tape and say things that many fans may not already know. Even for a former Receiver, Collinsworth actually tries to study line play, a concept fallen on deaf ears upon many an ex-quarterback commentator. (yes, I'm looking at you Troy) Collinsworth does much more work from the studio than he does from the booth and he still chooses to watch more game tape than most color commentators.

NBC also features the easily star-struck Peter King. As much as I give it to Peter King for giving obvious preferential treatment to superstars, (and by god he deserves it, Brett Favre confidant my ass) he usually does have something insightful to say and I'd be lying if I said I didn't look forward to his segments. ("Bob, I just got of the phone with Tony Dungy. He says they're going to look at the Bob Sanders MRI tomorrow and take it from there.")

So, NBC is far away and the best. I still think its a bit of a waste to feature three host types, and have two of them do highlights. Needless to say, I don't think it would have been much of a stretch for just one of them to do the highlights. But I'm nitpicking, especially when it comes to comparing NBC to the bozos at CBS and FOX. Both of them have been doing a glorified ESPN ripoff for the last four years. The NFL studio producers at both those networks feel like they have to appeal to the ultra-short attention spans of today's viewing audience, so they come up with segments with names like 'rapid fire' and 'true or false'. These games consist of the pregame show host shouting NFL-related questions that can be answered by the hosts in one word, or maybe even less. 

Let's come up with a new rule for sports studio shows. Lets put a moratorium on questions like 'Can the Eagles win in Dallas?' or 'How good are the Cardinal's?', because the answers given will offer about as much insight into the NFL as you'd expect to get from an Amish Farmer, meaning not much. And lets not forget the team segments, where they send one of their analysts to give softball questions to a team with rap music in the background playing the entire time. CBS and FOX are beyond insulting to my intelligence. 

I don't expect them to, but they should put an end to this dreck. Just because 'the four letters' started all this garbage, doesn't mean you should keep it up. 

Charley Casserly

On my last post, a reader commented on Charlie Casserly about him getting a GM job. Charlie Casserly is in a tought spot to get a job right now. Yes,  he was the man to draft Mario Williams, Andre Johnson, Demeco Ryans and Dunta Robinson, but before those players came into their own and after he left, he was considered to have done a poor job in Houston. Now that those four have really come into their own, his tenure now is receiving merely mixed reviews. The Texans have a nice core, but also have alot of forgettable pieces around them. At this point, I don't think he should merit a GM job. 

But what about simply a front office job, where he can raise his profile again? That's tough too. most GM's would be hesitant to bring him in for fear that they're bringing in their replacement in house, and they might lose their job for it.

Now, Casserly's got a sweet gig at CBS and I hear he still does a couple of jobs a year for the league office. He could get a job in the league office in an instant if he wants it, and that may have to be his best route to another high profile NFL job.

Kansas City hires Scott Pioli and How we got to this point

Scott Pioli will take over as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. He will succeed his predecessor, Carl Peterson in only the general manager capacity and not team president. Owner Clark Hunt, may or may not hire a team president. The team president role could be integral in overseeing the building of a new stadium with a retractable roof that would hope to be completed in time to host the Super Bowl in Kansas City in 2016. 

I don't blame Clark Hunt for not giving Pioli the President title as well. Pioli was VP of Player Personnel with the New England Patriots, and from the looks of it, looks to be involved solely on the football side of things. 

To be quite frank, the cupboard is quite bare for the incoming Pioli. Spending money on building a Super Bowl contender earlier in the decade left the Chiefs right up to the salary cap wall by Carl Peterson. In the last three years, perhaps instead of trying to merely make the playoffs with no realistic shot at the Super Bowl, maybe the Chiefs should been rebuilding. They're certainly paying the price for it right now.

All signs point to him letting go current head coach Herman Edwards and his staff. Herm's poor game management skills and and absolute obliteration of a once prolific offense doomed him in Kansas City.

Looking back on it, so much of Kansas City's trouble can be traced back to the 2006 season. After 2005, with the team finishing 10-6 but out of the playoffs and Coach Dick Vermeil retiring, the Chiefs were at a major crossroads. The team was aging, as well as being up against the salary cap, but instead of packing it in, the Chiefs choose not to go into a rebuilding process and instead try to put together a playoff team. Picks are swapped to the New York Jets to get head coach Herman Edwards. Before training camp starts, cornerstone left tackle Willie Roaf decides to retire unexpectedly, and the Chiefs once vaunted offensive line immediately looks a lot weaker. QB Trent Green suffers a concussion and is pretty much lost for the year in week one. Herman Edwards also gives an unprecedented workload to running back Larry Johnson, setting a single season record for carries in a season, many of them into eight-man fronts that wore down Herm's franchise back. However, the Chiefs succeeded in making the playoffs with a 9-7 record and alot of outside help. But as I mentioned before, the season was a make or break one, and instead of conceding that they had no real shot at Super Bowl, they mortgaged their future for a quiet first round exit against the Colts.

So with a broken down running back, and an eclectic mix of broken down and/or disenchanted veterans, with an astoudingly large number of rookies off the street, the Chiefs trodge their way through a 4-12 2007 season. The lone bright spot, Defensive End Jared Allen, who leads the league in sacks, request for a trade is granted when he is traded to the Vikings for a host of picks, including a first rounder.

I told you before that Scott Pioli was inheriting a bare cupboard and I wasn't lying. The team is still populated by disenchanted and/or broken down vets with lots of rookie, many being signed off the street. Some of the cornerstones the team previously thought they could build around, now have shown they are not as bright as they once were. Defensive End Tamba Hali was supposed to fill the pass rushing void from the departure of Jared Allen, but he only registered three sacks in 2008 and was often overpowered by opposing tackles in the run game. The fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft for the Chiefs, defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey had a very poor rookie season. He stands way too tall when playing and was often easily moveable in the run game. Defensive End Turk Mcbride shouldn't have to be considered the best d-lineman Kansas City has after all the money invested in those two first rounders. Weakside Linebacker Derrick Johnson is the most competent starter the Chiefs have on defense. I focus on the front seven because because before the season started, that was supposed to be an area of strength for the Chiefs, and now its as much up in the air as any other are for the team. 

I rest my case. Carl Peterson did a horrible job of running football operations the last half decade. He deserved to be fired, and many people in Kansas City are very happy to see "King Carl" as dubbed local sports columnist Jason Whitlock, finally leave the Chiefs organization.

So thats whats wrong with the Chiefs. 

And its Scott Pioli's job to fix it.

Chargers at Steelers Postgame notes

-Steelers WR Nate Washington is a weapon. He's a third receiver that could start for alot of teams. The Ravens have a weak group of corners, and if the Steelers feel comfortable enough with their pass protection, they should run a lot of three wide and even four wide sets.

-If I'm the Chargers, I don't just evaluate Norv Turner through the last six weeks of the season. This still is a supposedly supremely talented that was once 4-8 this year. Even without some of the bad breaks, they still underachieved this year. Think about this: How many elite players did you think the Chargers had at the beginning of this year, and how many elite players would you consider the Chargers have now? These players have been coached poorly, and the most glaring case of this has been the absolute regression of CB's Antonio Cromartie and Quentin Jammer. 

Really the only two bullish players on the Chargers have been Philip Rivers and Darren Sproles. Too many young players, too much raw talent, and to see all of them either be stagnant or regress in their level of play is unacceptable. Should one playoff victory really seal Norv Turner's fate with this team?

-This game could have been much more lopsided. I thought the level of talent on these teams were comparable?

Cardinals at Panthers Halftime Notes

-Where can I start with the Carolina Panthers? They're a big play team so they're not out of it but....

-Panthers S Charles Godfrey was awful in the first half. He didn't read the receiver splits correctly on the first Cardinal's touchdown drive and was caught off guard when Larry Fitzgerald went deep which should never happen.

-The Gerald Hayes pick from Jake Delhomme was embarrasing. He couldn't read the deep middle linebacker drop in the cover two?

-This game could be much worse. The Panthers could be down thirty easily.

-John Fox has twelve minutes to whip his team into shape. It looks really bad right now. Could we be seeing an NFC title game played at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Ravens-Titans Postgame Notes

-I don't have a problem with no delay of game call. If that same play occurred a split second before, the Titans couldn't complain about anything.

-The Titans are a different team without Chris Johnson. He was evading the Ravens best defenders in the first half and sipping hot chocalate in the second. The Ravens could blitz liberally knowing they didn't need to leave a linebacker man to man with Chris Johnson, and that forced Kerry Collins to get the ball out quick.

-We may have seen the last game in a Titans uniform for Albert Haynesworth. I'm not denying the Titans don't have alot of talented defensive lineman to take his place, but the Titans would be makingt a mistake if they think that there won't be a major drop  off in production with tackles who now have to play a ful, game.

Ravens at Titans Halftime Notes

-Don't be surprised by anything Ravens SS Jim Leonhard does. He was awesome last week in Miami and showed all kinds of range. This week he's been just as good. The fourth down stop he made just shows how much tape this guy watches of his opponents and how freely and speedy he can play when he knows what the opponents are going to run.

-Ravens CB Fabian Washington needs to get his hands on recerivers. The Titans are killing him with intermediate routes.

-Both Titan guards Eugene Amano and Jake Scott have been really good. For the most part they've helped subdue Haloti Ngata and picked up a ton of complex Ravens' blitzes.

-The Ravens won't lay back on defense. They don't believe they can throw a coverage at Kerry Collins that will confuse him, so they're forcing the issue and coming right at him. The Titans are moving the ball efficiently between the twenties because Collins has been kept clean and has been so poised in the pocket. He won't evade defenders, but if he's given time, he can beat you over the top.

-I have no clue who's winning this game. Its about who make better adjustments.

Giambi to the Athletics makes sense

Jason Giambi signing a one year deal with the Oakland Athletics makes alot of sense for them. He still has a very discerning batting eye that will draw alot of walks in front of Matt Holliday, or he'll be hitting fastballs behind Matt Holliday. With Jack Cust and his all or nothing bat behind those two, opposing relievers will get a workout against the Athletics. 

The Athletics offense will only increase, while the division rival Angels offense, seems like its sure to decrease. I have little doubt that Howie Kendrick will be an even better hitter this year than he was last, but he won't be able to make up for the loss in production felt from the departure of Mark Texeira. The rotation is still top-notch and I see the Angels having little trouble replacing the effectiveness of Francisco Rodriguez at closer, but you certainly can't deny that the Angels seem just a little bit more vulnerable this year. 

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle brought up in a recent column that it wouldn't hurt a revenue sharing horder like the Athletics to bring in a recognizable face in Giambi. The A's lineup will be patient and have just a little more name-recognition this season.

Divisional Round Preview: How much "Magic" is there in the Divisional Round?

Since the NFL moved to twelve teams making the playoffs in the 1991 postseason, in the divisional round there has never been more than two upsets of teams with byes the previous week. It was rare enough two years ago to see the Colts and the Patriots both win on the road in the divisional round to set up an AFC Championship game between two teams that played in Wild Card Weekend, three road teams victorious in the Divisional Round is a cold day in hell. Say what you will about small sample size being that this format has been in place for less than two decades, but I stick to it.  

As I like to say, there's only enough "magic" in the divisional round for two upsets. 

Phil Loadholt Impressions from BCS Title Game

I watched the BCS title game with my friend George last night. George is a 6'2, 320 lb man, who played a little bit of offensive line in college. He is the man I'm going straight to If I want an actual true evaluation of an offensive lineman. Last night, we got to watch the outstanding Left Tackle from Oklahoma, Phil Loadholt. He's certainly in the second tier of this years class of left tackles including Michael Oher and Andre Smith. He's 6'8 and 338 lbs, so what could be the problem.

Well, for me he stands a bit tall out of his stance. George noticed that he had a very powerful upper body so that makes up for it, but he will undoubtedly have to adjust when he moves up a level. With a good kick step, that creates a good pocket for the quarterback, he won't be a complete project on the pro level, but still, he's going to need some work.

Previewing the Divisional Round: Panther's 'Backers

Consistent with every athlete that has ever excelled on a professional team located in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jon Beason and the rest of the Panthers linebacking unit are pretty underrated. Perhaps Jon Beason has become more of a household name among more fairweather NFL fans, but he's still in the realm of a player you have no the hell idea about if you only watch ESPN and read ESPN.com. For me, he's the best mike linebacker in the NFC. He makes a ton of plays despite playing behind an absolutely mediocre to poor run-stuffing Defensive Tackle in Damione Lewis. You wanna know why the Panthers run defense looked so weak in the final weeks of the regular season, you should look right in Damione Lewis's direction. He fills holes unbelievably quick and is just a monster out there.
Thomas Davis is pretty impressive to watch as well. He really follows through in his hits, as he should. As most of you know, he was a Safety at Georgia and absolutely bulked up . He has a great motor especially for a position that demands a great motor, as will linebacker does. He's a former safety, so he's quick enough to cover a wide variety of skill positions, and is quite adept at covering running backs out of the backfield. 

Nail Diggs is easily the most overlooked of the three linebackers and is not nearly as flashy as Beason or Davis. Diggs is your prototypical sam linebacker in that he's tall and lanky(6'4, 237 lbs.), with long enough arms to jam Tight Ends at the line of scrimmage and overpower them.

The Panthers linebackers are a very good group that will need to really read the receiver splits of the Cardinals receivers well to make the proper depth of drops in coverage. All three are comfortable in space so I think they'll do just fine.

Welcome!

Hello, everyone. Welcome to my blog, Let's get right to it.

I absolutely adore sports, but for the most part, I'll be pretty focused on Football, Baseball, and Hockey at all levels of the game, but with emphasis on the professional major leagues of those respective sports. 

I really love the x's and o's of those particular sports and the nuances that go into them. I really don't have a favorite between those three sports, but lets just say all three sports offer something completely different to the other and I embrace the diversity between all three and love what all three bring to the table. 

I intake a ridiculous amount of sports media each day, and to me the majority of it is garbage, alot of that we can thank the four letters for. However, there are some very special sports writers out there who inform and captivate me like none others and I gain alot of inspiration from them. Among others, I include Michael Lewis who wrote Moneyball and the Blind Side, both incredible books that brilliantly show the people involved in helping revolutionize their particular sports forever. 

I adore John Feinstein, who is famous for his "view from the inside"-themed books such as 'Next Man Up' and 'A Season on the Brink'. I really have little love for the sports John Feinstein mostly covers in College Basketball and PGA Golf, but if I want to learn about those particular sports, He's the man I'm going straight to. I'll read anything he writes.

And of course, Michael Lombardi, who has a fantastic blog at Nationalfootballpost.com. He was an NFL scout for a very long time working under Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, so he obviously knows what the hell he's talking about. Pretty much has the definitve "insiders view" of the NFL and I learn something new every day I read him, which is about the highest compliment I can give anyone.

Well, hope you all enjoy the blog postings and don't forget to clear your schedules so you can watch the NFL Playoffs this weekend uninterrupted.