A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
This post is going to be relatively quick, because the point is an easy one to make.
It boils down to this:
Some smart NFL franchise that values winning and player development should hire Marty Schottenheimer, who is one of the most underrated coaches, in any sport, of my lifetime.
It was absolutely sick what Matt Flynn did to the Detroit Lions in the snow globe conditions at Lambeau Field Sunday. In fact, it was sick what both Flynn and Matthew Stafford did in snowy, windswept Lambeau Field.
I just took my weekly Monday morning browse through r/NFL, and here are the most entertaining moments from Week 15 that are now immortalized online in GIF or video form.
KCChiefs.com is reporting that head coach Todd Haley has been “relieved of duties” in the wake of the Chiefs’ loss to the Jets yesterday.
It was an eventful week in the National Football League.
Aaron Rodgers led a last-minute drive to give the Packers a win over the Giants, extending Green Bay’s winning streak to 18. Drew Brees became the first quarterback in league history to throw for more than 4,000 yards in 12 games. Tim Tebow led the Broncos to their fifth straight win and proved that he is more than just a pair of legs, throwing for 202 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Chris Johnson put to rest any doubt that he had emerged from an early-season, hold0ut-induced funk by rushing for 153 yards and 2 scores. Marshawn Lynch had similar numbers in the Seahawks’ Thursday-night thrashing of the Eagles. And the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski caught 3 touchdown passes, tying the record for most touchdown receptions in a season by a tight end with 13.
First-year coach Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers clinched the NFC West and earned their first Playoff bid in nearly a decade. During the Niners’ shutout of St. Louis running back Frank Gore became the leading rusher in franchise history.
These are the players you’ll see on the highlight shows and read about in the week-in-review columns. These are the players who sell jerseys and star in commercials for insurance companies. But, as is always the case in football, no team is successful apart from the contributions of several players whose exemplary work we often overlook.
Here are but a few of the unsung heroes from Week 13 in the NFL:
The Chiefs and Steelers are two teams going in different directions and they play on Sunday Night Football. This game is so lightly anticipated that the most notable storyline has to do with a player who will not even be involved in the game: Kyle Orton.
Although Tim Tebow has won 4 out of his 5 starts so far, the everyday fan was still surprised to see Kyle Orton be waived by the Broncos.
John Fox is a coach who looks for a more traditional style quarterback, and that leads me to believe that he did not have much to do with the waiving of Orton. Orton is a quarterback that I feel is better than most quarterbacks starting in the NFL as of today, and many teams could use him as an upgrade from what they currently have.
Here are some of the teams that may have an interest in claiming him.
For once, Andrew Luck is not the toast of the college quarterback world.
Combine Stanford’s loss to Oregon two weekend ago with Luck’s pedestrian numbers against Cal on Saturday (20-30, 257 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT in a 31-28 win), and then mix in superlative performances by Baylor’s Robert Griffin III and USC’s Matt Barkley this past Saturday, and Luck doesn’t seem luck such a clear-cut #1 prospect any more, now does he?
The New England Patriots received their Christmas gift from Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos a little bit early.
The Broncos defeated the New York Jets Thursday night behind a stunning 95-yard drive, culminating in a 20-yard, game-winning touchdown run for Tebow. A Patriots victory against a short-handed Chiefs team Monday night could give New England a 2-game division lead over the Jets.
In the aftermath of Stanford’s disappointing loss to Oregon on Saturday night, you are likely to hear little birdies chirping that Andrew Luck isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.
Don’t buy it.
Week 8 is now in the books after Philip Rivers fumbled away a road win in Kansas City, which means we are right around the midway point of the 2011 season. Most teams have played 8 games, a few have played 7, and we can finally start to state with some level of certainty who is good, who is not, and who is too enigmatic to declare.
Without question, the story of the first half of the season (other than this) has been the ascent of the Detroit Lions.
They went 0-16 three years ago, then 2-14 in Jim Schwartz’s first year, then 6-10 last year; and now halfway through their 2011 slate Detroit, sitting at 6-2, is a bona fide contender in the NFC. And the Lions aren’t just an empty record either. They have the skill, attitude, reputation, and right now the health (knock on wood) to suggest that they aren’t going away.
So in honor of the Motor City Mufasas, and their roaring wreakers of wreckage Ndamukong Suh and Calvin Johnson, I give to you my Midseason NFL Power Rankings, with each team presented alongside a Motown classic that sums up the first half of its season.
[Read more...]
Week Eight featured fewer injuries and breakout performances than we’ve seen in recent weeks, but it did provide fantasy owners with a sobering reminder that we live in a world where Drew Brees, in a gift-wrapped matchup against a floundering defense, can be outscored by guys like Matt Moore and Matt Painter.
The good news is that we are through most of the bye weeks, and just four teams (Carolina, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Minnesota) are off in Week Nine. While most of those teams haven’t racked up many wins, there are some big fantasy names on those rosters for which owners may need a replacement.
Division rivals will fight for a win tonight, and this might actually be a Monday night game worth watching as many of the Monday Night Football matchups this season have been less than entertaining.
Leading the AFC West, the San Diego Chargers (4-2) will travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs (3-3). Kansas City looked buried at 0-3, but they have a huge opportunity tonight to get right back into the thick of the AFC West race.
Let’s take a look at the teams.
Drew Brees went 31-35 for 325 yards and 5 touchdowns in the Saints’ 62-7 undressing of the Colts.
Aaron Rodgers put together another near-perfect performance for the undefeated Packers.
Cowboys rookie DeMarco Murray ran for 253 yards in relief of injured starter Felix Jones (and fumble-prone backup Tashard Choice), breaking a single-game franchise record set by Emmitt Smith in 1993.
Cam Newton continued his impressive freshman campaign, going 18-23 for 256 yards, rushing for another 59 yards, and scoring one touchdown through the air and one on the ground.
And Tim Tebow raised as many questions as he answered Sunday, struggling for much of the Broncos’ overtime win over the Dolphins before scoring 2 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion in the final 3 minutes of regulation.
These are the players whose names you read in headlines and whose highlights you saw on SportsCenter. But football is an 11-on-11 game, and most of this weekend’s winners wouldn’t have been successful without the contributions of several players who didn’t hear their names mentioned in the post-game press conference.
Here are just a few of the unsung heroes from Week 7 in the NFL:
I’mmm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!
Did you miss me?
Jon has himself a busy schedule this week, so he texted me this morning and asked if I’d be up for reprising my role as the author of our weekly Start/Sit column here at MSF. I have to admit, as soon as I saw his text I was pretty pumped.
Doing these posts every week, week after week, can admittedly be a bit of a grind, as I learned over the last couple of years; so I was happy to let Jon take it over this year and focus my efforts in other areas. But I’ve missed the weekly challenge of poring over matchups and stats and trends to figure out which players to recommend to you as starts and sits.
So it’s good to be back in the saddle.
Anyway, It’s not like I’ve been totally absent. I still offer commentary on Jon’s posts, answer questions in the comment sections, and monitor the @FantasyMSF Twitter account. So I haven’t really given you a chance to miss me even if you wanted to. Now though, for the first time all year, I have to go on record with start and sit picks.
I’m ready. Let’s roll.
