Friday, November 23, 2012

The NFL is Poop - Thanksgiving Edition

That Rule Needs to Change
A big controversy marred the Texans 34-31 over the Lions. Houston running back Justin Forsett was tackled, popped right back up and ran down the field for an 81-yard touchdown. No whistle blew, but Forsett was clearly down. No problem, it will just be overturned on review, because all scoring plays are automatically reviewed. But Lions coach Jim Schwartz threw his red challenge flag. He got a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. And the play became unreviewable. I agree with the first part, you don't want coaches throwing the flag all the time, delaying the game, and getting a free chance to lobby the officials. But to make the play not reviewable? That is too harsh. I could actually see a circumstance where a coach could throw his flag on a scoring play or turnover that benefits his team in order to make it not reviewable. Unless there is some other clause prohibiting that. This rule will be changed in the offseason.



The Jets Are in Total Disarray
That game was a complete and total embarrassment for the Jets. And it wasn't all Mark Sanchez's fault. Yes, his first interception was terrible. And he is going to be the "butt" of jokes for running into his lineman's ass and fumbling.





But he had nothing to do with the fumble on the kickoff return. Or the 83-yard screen pass the defense allowed. The Jets entire team stinks. They went for broke a couple years ago stratifying their salary structure with a few high-priced players and filling the rosters with low-paid scrubs. Now those players are no longer producing and the whole thing has gone to shit.
I think Mark Sanchez is an average quarterback if he's on a good team like he was in his first two years. But when the team is bad and he has to pass too much, he becomes horrible. Tim Tebow is obviously not the answer. But I would at least like to see them give him a chance if he's healthy. Nothing could be worse than what happened to the Jets on Thanksgiving.

A Brief Rant About the Redskins
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for Robert Griffin III. In the past two weeks he has thrown 8 touchdowns and only 9 incomplete passes. I was initially unsure of his accuracy on deep balls but his throw to Aldrick Robinson was perfect (even though it didn't need to be because he was so wide open.
I'm also glad the Shanahans have gotten a little more aggressive in their play-calling. They started off running on nearly every first and second down play, forcing RGIII into 3rd down situations. They opened it up with the long bomb to Robinson which opened the floodgates.
Also, on that late drive which led to the clinching field goal, the Redskins threw a pass on 3rd and 8 from the 30. Had the field goal missed, they would have been killed on two counts: for not getting extra yards and for not killing an extra 30 seconds. But three previous times on that drive the Redskins threw, and completed passes to keep the drive going. Had they just tried to run every down to kill the clock they probably would have been stopped short of the field goal, and with much more time on the clock.
I know the game got close at the end but I really am not holding that against the defense. They played great last week, great again until they fell into the prevent defense.

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