Boring in HD is still boring

When I finally got my big TV up and running, the first thing to do was check out the NFL Network in HD. HD is nice, but Rich Eisen and Deion Sanders in short sleeves interviewing guys is far from compelling. Later I saw the documentary on the AFL and that was much cooler.

I’ll get to see a few Titans “in action” tomorrow night for the last time in a while. I want to see Chris Johnson to primarily make sure that he doesn’t get hurt. I assume he’ll tear up the opposition, or guys might get up to tackle the rushing champ. Vince Young was awful in the 2007 Pro Bowl. I’m sure that he wants to make amends. Is anyone else a less likely Pro Bowler? You could have taken 1000-1 odds when the season started.

I enjoy the BS Report. Today Mr. Simmons talked about his upcoming appearance as an announcer for a bowling tournament. I was about to tune out until I he changed the subject with guest Rob Stone and talked 2010 World Cup. That’s going to be a lot of fun. As is Sports Guy’s wont, he mentioned the potential fantasy implications. Get eight guys together and have a draft of countries. Everyone gets four and they become your team. I doubt I could find eight guys who were interested. I couldn’t even get more than half of my local keeper league to join a fantasy playoff league. I always set it up and winning is never that sweet since four people end up participating by the final week.

I suppose that the labor strife and the upcoming draft should keep me interested. I think I can back off for a while and catch up later. Other than the Super Bowl, talk to me in April and we’ll see how things are going.

Zach's Wacky All-Positive Divisional Playoff Review

In honor of a weekend that went against script (the teams that coasted into the playoffs looked great and the hottest team in the league did not), I'm going to write about all of the games completely positively. I do so because we've become too much of a negative, sarcastic society, especially in the blogosphere, and I have the tendency to go negative too often. It will be a challenge.

Saints over Cardinals

We wondered if the Saints could "turn it back on" in time for their divisional round game and they did. The first play reminded too many casual fans of last week's start to the Patriots/Ravens game, and Saints fans had to be a little nervous as Tim Hightower raced 70 yards for a score. Great teams respond when they have to and the Saints scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions to end it.

It's a cliché to say that teams play better with the lead. The Saints' defense plays better with the lead. They play much looser and tend to get turnovers. The theme for the weekend was get turnovers and win. Another cliché.

It was a curious move when the Saints signed Deuce McAllister, the team's all-time leading rusher, prior to the playoff game. The ploy worked. While McAllister didn't play, four different running backs did. Fantasy owners must have been curious when Lynell Hamilton scored the first touchdown. Pierre Thomas had most of the carries. It took three kneel downs at the end, but the Saints had more runs than passes. Watch out, America.

And what happened to Reggie Bush? He was a man possessed. The back-breaking play of a breathless first quarter was his 46-yard touchdown run. He got hit, stood up, hit the accelerator and was gone. Used sparingly, he is explosive and hard to slow down. I think he got a first down or a touchdown on all of his touches. There was talk that the Saints would let him go but I don't think they can afford to do so.
We even saw the return of Jeremy Shockey. Limping noticeably, he still managed to snare a touchdown pass in the first quarter. He didn't contribute much for the rest of the contest, but his attitude helped a lot on a team that had to be nervous at first.

You think it will be a challenge to say nice things about the Cardinals? Yes, their defense gave up 70 points in a four-quarter stretch. That's tough. The D did make the key play to win last week's game. This week there weren't plays to be made. Tim Hightower's game-opening run showed that he's really turned the corner in his second year. I expect Beanie Wells to be the main ball carrier next year, but Hightower will get his.

Kurt Warner's tough. On a second-quarter interception, he ran to make the tackle and was knocked off his feet by a fierce block. I don't think Tom Brady or Peyton Manning even tries to make that tackle. He came back later in the game but it was out of hand at that point. If he retires, I hope fans remember his incredible first-round performance and not Saturday's game in which the Saints were clearly superior.

Look at it this way. The Cardinals have won playoff games in back to back years. They should build a statue of Ken Whisenhunt.

Colts over Ravens

We wondered if the Colts could get back to playing at a high level after their curious decision to sit 'em down in the middle of a game against the Jets. The offense wasn't amazing but it was good enough. The defense made sure that the Colts would host the AFC Championship game.

The Colts have never overwhelmed us with their offensive prowess this year. Where they excel is the two-minute offense. That's where they won the game. Manning hit rookie Austin Collie to take a 10-3 lead. The Ravens went three and out and Manning did it again. That nice man Ray Lewis helped extend the following drive. The touchdown with three seconds made the score 17-3 and the Ravens didn't have enough offense to rally.

You know from previous columns that I'm not a Ravens fan. I'll be brief. This team managed to win three road playoff games in two years. Joe Flacco is improving as a quarterback. Ray Rice is sensational. If you're going to turn the ball over four times, you're not going to win. The Ravens even managed to turn the ball over on a turnover when Ed Reed fumbled after a long interception return. You can't overcome that. The Ravens should be the favorites to win the AFC North next year.

Vikings over Cowboys

Bully to you if you started Brett Favre and Sidney Rice this week, as my cohort Mr. Funk did. The Vikings stumbled at the end of the season. They needed a win and an Eagles loss to get a first-round bye and did so. The once dominant defense was giving up yards. Would they break against a plasma hot Cowboy offense?
The game was decided in a first-quarter sequence. The Cowboys drove inside Viking territory three times in a row. They scored zero points. Favre hit Rice on a go pattern for a touchdown. The Vikings made their big plays and the Cowboys stumbled all day.

Favre looked great and he didn't have to throw a lot of passes. Save that arm for the harsh elements of the Superdome, I say. Adrian Peterson struggled but a smart team keeps giving him the ball. Sidney Rice is the reason why the third-year WR breakout theory will survive for another five years. His best play was when he started blocking, got knocked to the ground, and got up to find an opening down the seam.

The defense was fantastic and reminds us why this team was an early Super Bowl favorite. The NFC Championship game should be as good as we hoped this game would be.

Tony Romo and the Cowboys reversed their usual December fortunes. They, like the Ravens, had an unfortunate time to play at far less than their best. The Vikings kept them from making big plays all day. They found a stud receiver in Miles Austin and Felix Jones looks like the playmaker at RB that they've been waiting for. The future is bright.

Jets over Chargers

I feel for Chargers fans. They did what the announcers wanted the Colts and Saints to do. Keep winning. Last year's hot team heading into the playoffs, the Colts, had the same result. It makes you want to pull out your hair, assuming that you have something to pull.

I felt like this was going to be a tight game. The Jets weren't doing anything on offense but the Chargers couldn't move either. I thought that if the Chargers could open up a two-score lead that they would win going away. They never were able to extend the lead.

All I can say about Nate Kaeding is bless you, my son.

In the third quarter Rivers put up what they call a 50/50 ball. It was Vincent Jackson against Darrelle Revis. With Revis you might call this kind of play a 51/49 ball. Jackson had the height advantage but Revis got a hand in there, and somehow, miraculously, the ball bounced into his hands. That was bad fortune.

The Jets pulled ahead 17-7 but the Chargers didn't give up. Rivers got them into field goal range. We know what happened there. The D held and Rivers led them to a touchdown. There was slightly more than two minutes to go. The Chargers had one time out. I thought they might kick away but they went onside. It was a good kick. The Jets got the ball and ran out the clock.

The Jets kept waiting and waiting and finally brought their running game. They kicked a field goal in the third quarter when it looked like they might go for it. A second interception led to their first touchdown on a play-action pass. The Jets are all run, run, play-action pass but it can work. The last touchdown was a fresh rookie tearing up a beat-up defense. It wasn't easy but the Jets won two playoff games for the first time since 1982.

I watched the Titans lose on this same weekend last year. I know what Chargers fans are feeling. They've been very good for many years and haven't made the Super Bowl. The team even transformed from a run team to a pass team. That's not easy to do while staying at a playoff record. Norv Turner is a good coach. There's nothing to say other than this team should be good again and maybe once they'll get the good bounces and the straight kicks when it matters. The waiting is the hardest part.

Chris Johnson is THE Offensive Player of the Year

Chris Johnson won the AP Offensive Player of the Year award today. He got 38.5 of the 50 votes. Drew Brees got 9, Peyton got 1.5 and Rivers got 1. That’s right, Titan fans, flash back to the controversial McNair/Manning co-MVP result in 2003. Someone has a sense of humor.

What’s the difference between Offensive Player of the Year and MVP? The MVP award appears to be really the ‘best QB on a team with a good record’ award. The offensive player of the year award goes to the guy with the coolest stats.

CJ had 358 of the 431 running back carries this year for the Titans. LenDale White, who was number two, had 62 carries and 12 of them after week seven. CJ was a workhorse in a league that has very few of them. Actually the league might have three at the moment.

Both awards should be limited to quarterback or running back. The offensive player of the year award has gone to a non-RB or QB twice, and that was Jerry Rice. In 54 years of the AP MVP award, a non RB or QB has won three times. Allen Page, a defensive tackle, won in 1971, Lawrence Taylor won in 1986 and the strangest MVP of all time has to be kicker Mark Moseley in 1982. It was a strike year.

Note that there are multiple MVP awards and I used the AP for consistency’s sake.

In the past decade, the MVP has gone to three running backs, three quarterbacks and four Peyton Mannings. The OPY award has gone to seven running backs and three QBs. Only once (last year with Brees winning the award) has the QB who won the MVP been different from the QB who won the OPY.

Manning is the all-time MVP leader with four and probably will win one or two more if he continues to have a pulse. Two players in history have three straight OPYs. Earl Campbell won from 1978-1980 (along with the 1979 MVP) and Marshall Faulk won from 1999-2001 (MVP in 2000). Chris Johnson, there’s your goal.

Prolong the fantasy

Before the 2009 season started, my mom had a telling comment. She said that bad football was better than no football. For the first seven weeks of the season, that theory was tested to the maximum. In the end, the season finished on an uptick. But it ended. Twelve teams made "the tournament" and the Titans were not invited. My fantasy teams fell well short of titles. What to do next?

Playoff fantasy football is another beast compared to the regular season. Since the so-called season is short and there are different rules. I used to manually score a postseason contest for my local keeper league. The first year, I just had people draft players, which naturally limited the talent pool. I had one year when I tried to get people to draft a player in a week, which meant that you could draft Kurt Warner in the wild card round and someone else could draft him for the Super Bowl. That was too complicated. We settled on a hybrid last year, where you select players and have limited replacement opportunities, which meant that you had to predict who was going to win and score well.

I set up the league on the CBS Sportsline site, since that's where we have our league. It's an eight-player league with eight allowed substitutions. I punted defense and kicker by selecting the Colts and Matt Stover. I selected Kurt Warner (yay), Marion Barber (WTF), Cedric Benson (your stay was too short), Randy Moss (never again), Larry Fitzgerald (double yay), and Jason Witten (at least your team won). Barber's the tough one. I could replace him or hope that the Cowboys don't decide to lean on their two second-year backs like they did last year. I expect that Warner and Fitzgerald will bow out this week, but there's something about those Cardinals. They're quite clutch. I have to decide which running back to select. Adrian Peterson would be the obvious choice. There really aren't "star" running backs left. Ray Rice is the top talent and probably would be a bargain. With six moves left heading into the championship games, I should be in a good spot.

Orange Bowl with no pulp

The BCS has cleared up the national title picture, but it’s killed the Orange Bowl. It’s funny now that the stadiums named for the bowls are disappearing. The Orange Bowl is now played at Landshark Stadium, and the stadium that used to host the game is now a parking lot. The Cotton Bowl will go to uber Cowboys Stadium next year, as Texas Stadium will be the first sponsored
implosion.

In the 80s, the Orange Bowl hosted the Big 8 champion. The game became a quasi national championship game, and that continued through the 1990s. Clemson won their sole national championship. Miami put themselves on the national map with a memorable upset of Nebraska. In 20 years, nine national champions played there.

In the previous decade, there were three national champions crowned in Miami. The other games were on the other end of the spectrum. A Rose Bowl West matchup of USC and Iowa in 2003 was interesting, but for the most part a mediocre slate of ACC teams watered down the games. Miami beat Florida State in 2004 but no one cared. Even the national title games weren’t exciting. Oklahoma beat down Florida State. Remember when Oklahoma was clutch in BCS games? USC demolished Oklahoma in 2005. Last year, Florida beat Oklahoma in a game that should have been closer. Virginia Tech was the sole ACC team to win, and they beat Cincinnati. Louisville beat Wake Forest and one-hit wonders like Maryland and Kansas crashed the party.

Last night’s game was a new low. Georgia Tech’s option was to be showcased against an Iowa team that was in the game mainly because of the number of fans who could show up. The joke was on them; it was the coldest Orange Bowl game in history. Iowa figured out the option. Georgia Tech made a solid effort to rally but couldn’t slow down the Iowa “attack”.

The Rose Bowl still has cache because of tradition. The Orange Bowl has none because the ACC champ used to go to the Gator Bowl, usually has at least two losses, and their normal opponent is from the Big East which may be even less of a national player. There was hope when Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College moved over. So far only Tech has made the big game. Maybe when there’s a plus one or playoff system this bowl will return to the glory days.

Missouri played in this game in 1940, losing to Georgia Tech. They went to consecutive Orange Bowls in 1960 and 1961. They lost to Georgia and beat Navy. That’s right, Navy, we beat you when it really mattered. They also lost to Penn State in the 1970 game. Missouri should have been in the 2008 game, but the Big 12 decided to reward Kansas for playing nobody and losing to Missouri.

Final day

Today is the final day of the regular season in the National Football League. It's a strange moment, because for the first year all of my fantasy leagues are finished. All there is left to do is watch with a bit of an detachment. I wrote the following last week: It's weird watching football with absolutely nothing at stake. I feel like a football atheist showing up to church.

Because I go to the same place nearly every Sunday (hey, we can't be perfect) and do the same thing, my Sunday ritual is kind of like my church. I go to the Don Funk Sports Grill, drop my belongings and plug in my laptop. We put together lunch, which more often than not is onion burgers with cheddar. We eat two each because we can. The beer starts flowing. We discuss watching individual games but usually stick with the Red Zone. I don't know what we'll do without Don obsessing about his fantasy team all day. We may have to draft a team just for today. Are there any Week 17 leagues?

Nine of today's 16 games have playoff implications, although that's a high number. The only one I want to watch is the Titans/Seahawks game, because I want to see CJ go for 2,000. I even had a dream that I was watching the game. At the end of the third quarter he had just 60 yards, although to be fair in my dream they were playing the Dolphins.

I dig the ritual, and at least there are upcoming playoff games so we can get used to the idea of Sunday without football. I dig the irony that because the NFL season is so short (shortest of the major sports), we crave it that much more when it's there. It means more to us.

Even though my team let me down this year, I enjoyed the season immensely. I got to see a historic season by a running back. I witnessed a near-impossible comeback act by a much-maligned quarterback. I realized how short a championship window can be. The cool part about each NFL season is that it's unique. You'll never see the same story twice. You may get sick of the same teams on or near the top, but there are always teams that under- or overachieve. In the end, only one can be champion. On Sunday, we all feel like winners. Unless our team loses, then we feel like crap for far longer than is sane.

When mediocre becomes entertaining

New Year's Day belongs to college football. Northwestern met Auburn in a battle of unranked teams on New Year's Day. New Year's Day bowls used to be special. Now that a 6-6 team has been invited to one (albeit Bobby Bowden's final game, but still), the shine is off a bit. Northwestern had not won a bowl game for 60 years and Auburn was a "strong" 7-5. Auburn seemed to be the superior team. I was hung over to death so I tried to work up a sweat to get out some of the toxins while I watched. Northwestern rallied from a 21-7 deficit while I watched. On one play a tight end went out for a one-yard out. The defender couldn't tackle him. The tight end went down the sidelines. A cornerback practically jumped on the guy but could not bring him down. Touchdown.

Auburn again took a two-score lead. The Northwestern QB Mike Kafka had five interceptions. He finished with four touchdowns as well. Northwestern scored, on a drive in which they completed three fourth down plays. The extra point was blocked. Auburn needed two first downs to win. Their senior RB fumbled and Northwestern had the ball. On the first play, the QB was sacked. I thought that was it. The guy barely brushed his hand on Kafka's facemask. First down.
Northwestern scored.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Auburn return guy made it to the 50. As he was falling down, a Northwestern player stripped the ball. God bless smart players. NW had the ball and drove into field goal range. The kicker, with a chance to get his school their second bowl win, missed the kick.

Auburn kicked a field goal in overtime. Northwestern got the ball and things got crazy. Kafka hit a receiver for a first down. As the receiver went down, the ball came loose and bounced backward to the QB, who ran for a couple of downs. The Auburn defender was called for illegally batting the ball. The play was reviewed and the receiver was called down, so there was no penalty. Northwestern couldn't get a first down. Their kicker missed, wide right, again. As Auburn celebrated a flag went down. The kicker was roughed. They weren't kidding; it was the first time I saw a kicker actually injured on the follow through. NW had a chance to win. They were inside the ten-yard line. On fourth down they lined up for an extra point-length kick. They faked. Auburn tackled the guy out of bounds and it was over.

I kept coming back to football yesterday even though I had no rooting interest. Why? New Year's Day is supposed to be a special day in college football, even though it has been diluted with too many 6-6 and 7-5 teams and the fact that there are half a dozen more bowl games after this weekend. Tim Tebow looked great against Cincinnati. I did like how Brian Billick criticized his long release and that I finally got to see the long, slow release in person. Somehow I see Tebow going early in the draft. Has there ever been a guy going into the draft with such high intangibles and so many questions about his football skill-set? Maybe the offseason won't be so terribly depressing.