Monday Morning Cornerback: Week 20

Hello all 6Magazineers.....

 

How are you all doing today? It's MLK, Jr., Day, thank him for your day off work. I'm not off, but it's all good, I'm not tripping. Either way, here are my quick cuts and jukes from the 20th weekend of football.

 

College

It's all over, and I'm saddened. Welp, I guess it's time to start talking about the draft which I have no problem doing at all. Look out for my opinion on those who stayed vs. those who entered the draft early later on this week.

 

NFL

 

The Ravens D Is good, But Right Now, the Jets' Defense Is Better

Peyton Manning and the Colts only put up 20 points, which is low for them. The Ravens were just up and down all season long. A huge win in New England last weekend for the Ravens and a bust in Indianapolis this week.

No doubt that Flacco had a sophomore slump, and their receiving corps lack a true deep threat. It was a pretty easy strategy to beat the Ravens—all the Colts did was pack the box with eight people and make Joe Flacco beat them, which he could not.

It's alarming if you are a Colts fan, because it wasn't as good of a win at home as it should have been. I don't know, maybe it was the rust from not really playing for three weeks. Maybe they knew they would win and wanted to keep some tricks up their sleeves for the conference championship.

Either way it wasn't a big momentum-building win for the Colts, who looked very lethargic on offense. The defense looked great, but it was against the Baltimore Ravens' offense, so that's not saying much because they are so inconsistent.

 

Who Knew What Difference Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer Would Make

They are certainly not household names when it comes corner back names in the NFL, but they helped stop the Cardinals' passing attack on Saturday. The Cards played right into the Saints' hands, as well.

The Cards are not a rushing team—my unborn babies know this. All the Saints did was play great zone defense, kept everything in front of them, and zone blitz Kurt Warner frequently.

Someone please help me, but I don't understand how the Cardinals can have the passing attack that they have as far as protection from the offensive line, but not have the same vitality from the O-line when it comes to the rushing attack. I just don't get it. I mean the NFL is no longer a running league. They use the pass to setup the run, so this should be gravy for the Cards.

The Saints look bound for a Super Bowl championship with the way they are playing. The defense is great, as long as no one is running the ball against them. The offense looks something like the 2005 USC Trojans and the 2008 Florida Gators with a hint of the 2002 Miami Hurricanes.

Reggie Bush is running like Chris Johnson, and it's scary. Bush is not as fast as "Every Coach's Dream," but sharper cuts and more moves make him just as dangerous as Johnson.

In a perfect world, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning meet up in the Super Bowl and Brees wins the game and Super Bowl MVP (let's be honest, Peyton never gets injured and is just two years older than Brees; I think Peyton's career is going to last longer) because it's unlikely Brees will win an MVP while Peyton is still playing. Either way, I sure would like to meet the team that can stop the Saints.

 

How 'Bout Them Cowboys?

How bout that offensive line, Tony Romo, and Jason Garrett. Let's start with Garrett, whose play calling is flat out abysmal. I don't know why he always tries to get into shootouts with teams. It's as if he tries so hard with every fiber of his body to get into shootouts with teams when he should pound the ball.

Garrett wants to get into shootouts with Brett Favre, who has a cannon for an arm  and an AK-47 for an offense with two magazines of bullets that aren't even enough to satisfy all his targets. There are weapons in Minneapolis, man, don't you realize this?

The game was 17-3 for quite some time, and the Boys would move the ball and then they'd turn it over, or run an outside run and get a seven-yard loss. They were actually pounding the ball just fine against the Williams brothers but never truly stuck with the run.

I will say this, if Bill Parcells coaches this team, they might have won a Super Bowl by now or on their way to it this season. Let's face it, Parcells wouldn't let a game go by without Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice not touching the ball 30 times every single game. I get it, it may not be the prettiest football to play, but it works.

Look at the Jets. Replace Tony Romo with Mark Sanchez, and the Jets are bloodcurdling good. Didn't mean to jump on Wade Phillips, but he left me no choice. Man up, Wade, and tell J-Garrett to pound the ball.

The offensive line played, well, very bad. Not sure if Minnesota is that much better than them, but they looked like it yesterday. You have to give credit to the Minnesota fans who made it awfully hard for the Cowboys line.

I want to know why Roy Williams is mad he didn't get more than just one pass thrown his way. When you consistently drop the ball and your quarterback doesn't trust you when things are going well, what makes you think he's going to trust you when things are going bad?

The score doesn't show it, but the defense did about all they could do, most of the time they were in Vikings territory, and I believe the Vikings only scored once on a drive that started outside their own territory.

Enough about the Boys, Brett Favre is really good. Really good. He's thrown 37 touchdowns to seven picks. This is riverboat gambler Brett Favre playing like the cagey veteran that he is.

Sidney Rice and Ray Edwards both have stepped up big. Their linebackers Ben Lieber and Chad Greenway played well, also. The key to victory next weekend is their run game, and teams are bottling AD up or he's just not running well—not sure which one it is—but the Saints' run defense is their Achilles heel and the Vikes' strong suit going into their season was their run game.

 

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets

My homeboy who is an avid Jets fan was complaining about the Jets getting their first first down in the second quarter yesterday. I said calm down kemosabe, your defense will keep you close. Notice I said close, because in the back of my mind, I figured the Jets would put up a valiant effort, but the Chargers' D would make a play.

And surely Darrelle Revis is just one man and the Chargers have more than one weapon in Vincent Jackson on the outside. Ladanian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles would spark the running game, and Philip Rivers would make the key throws late in the game to prevail. Umm, two words: wrong and fail.

The Jets' defense made all the plays. All the plays. Mark Sanchez was the one who stepped up and made the offensive plays to win, not Philip Rivers, whose costly pick allowed the Jets to take the lead in the fourth quarter.

It was Shonn Greene of the Jets running 58 yards for a big play, and being oh so disrespectful by doing LT's touchdown celebration in San Diego. Ultimately, it was the Jets who won the game. Shocker, to me and several other million people outside of New York? Yes. To the Jets, nope, not one bit.

Revis played another near-perfect game, only giving up a swing route in zone coverage for a four-yard loss, and he came up with an interception. So much for going at him like Rivers said, they only threw his way four times.

The Jets meet the Colts in Indy again, this time with all of Indy's starters. Although, it should be noted that the Jets had the Colts on the ropes when their starters were still in the game.

 

Other Thoughts

 

RIP Gaines Adams

Dead of cardiac arrest at 26. He had an abnormal heart condition that went virtually undetected. From what I understand, the only way for it to even be detected was from an episode where he passes out or suffers cardiac arrest like this.

Hopefully with advancements in technology, these aliments can be detected in players before it turns tragic like this. My heart goes out to his family, fans, his Clemson Tiger family, his Tampa Bay Buccaneer family, and his Chicago Bear family.

 

MLK

Thank Dr. King for your day off of work. Also thank him for the advancement in race relations in this country. We've made tremendous strides, but we still have a long ways to go (anyone who doesn't think we have a long way to go look at the number of African-American coaches out of the 120 FBS college football teams, and then you can just stop reading my Web site for the rest of your life or until I feel like there is no more progress to be made and a hearing be held on whether or not you can regain your membership as a 6Magazineer).

Also thank MLK for the Rooney Rule and for the Rooney family for having the balls to see that things were not equal and stepping up to the plate to make them right. One day we'll make things right in college football, too.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, and it's something I shouldn't be forgetting. Ah, no worries, I'll just post about it later on this week when I remember. I will remember because I have the memory of an elephant, just not right now.

Thats all I got,

Ricky Writer

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