Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Trent Dilfer says Stopping TB12 &co. is "Very Simple" -- Has Also Just Been Offered 31 Defensive Coordinator Positions


ESPN AFC East Blog:
For two months, Tom Brady has been more difficult to decipher than hieroglyphics. ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer claims to possess the Rosetta Stone. And he's about to share it with us and the New York Jets, whom Brady and the New England Patriots shredded 45-3 barely five weeks ago. "So how do you stop Tom Brady?" Dilfer posed. "Very simple: Understand his starting point. "
Dilfer goes on to say teams should "Make him go to No. 2 and No. 3" and "Slow him down." Well gee, Trent, thanks for that one. How do you stop him? You stop him. Well no shit Sherlock. In case you haven't noticed, Trent, let me recap the Patriots offense, post-Moss: Consistently inconsistent. Since Randy Moss was traded, six different receivers have led the Patriots in receiving yards, including a slot receiver less than a year removed from major knee surgery, a 5'7" tailback who was cut by the Jets, two rookie tight ends and a career kick-returner. My point is that you can't pinpoint and "take away" Brady's first option because he doesn't have one. Brady doesn't even know who his first option is. Brady's No. 1 target is the guy you can't cover: the guy who is open. Why? Because Brady is the best there is, yes even better than the almighty Peyton Manning, at finding the open guy. Peyton can get away with throwing to covered receivers because he is so talented he can literally "throw receivers open." (I mean that in the real sense of the term, not the over-used ESPN usage of the term, used every time some scrub QB on a 6-6 WAC team throws a touchdown pass in the Let's All Swap Blood Samples Until We All Contract AIDS To Raise AIDS Awareness Bowl). But he's not as good as Brady at going through each receiver to find the open guy. My point is, you can't "force" Brady go to No. 2 and No. 3 when he's just as likely to throw to No. 4 and No. 5 as he is to throw to No. 1.

The formula for beating Brady actually is fairly simple: get pressure on him with a 3- or 4-man rush. This enables you drop 7 or 8 into coverage, making it difficult for his receivers to get open. However, you have to find a way to get pressure with only a 3- or 4-man rush. If you don't get pressure, his receivers will get open -- even against Darrelle Revis. How do you get pressure with the 3- or 4-man rush? That's the million dollar question. I don't think Trent Dilfer has the answer.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Capital One Bowl Week Is Rediculous

                                        A hot box of rocks attending the Beef O Brady's Bowl in St. Pete

I love college football and I love to gamble, but I'm going to be honest, I HATE all the bowl games ESPN now sponsors with this stupid Capital One Bowl Week. They are saturating the market with meaning less college football games. Seriously if anyone turned on the horrid Beef O'Brady or what ever the hell its called bowl you know what I am talking about. Don't think there are too many bowls, digest this: From 1902 (First Rose Bowl) until 1971 (when the Fiesta Bowl was created, the last BCS bowl) there were only 10 bowl games, since then, 25 or so bowls have been creating including the BCS Championship Game (played at one of the four BCS stadiums but an entirely different game), with another bowl being added next year.

There are 35 bowls currently in place meaning 70 teams earn a bowl out of a possible 120 FBS teams,
now if my partyland educated math is correct that that is something like 58% of Football Bowl Subdivision making it to the "postseason". I honestly cant see how another bowl can be added and only teams with .500 records being allowed to participate.

Here are two solutions to this ever expanding dilemma, first is cutting the number of bowls and limiting the bowls (with the exception of the National Championship) to being played only on New Year's Day . This could definitely be possibility seeing how it is impossible for the Universities and ESPN to be making money of bowls like the Beef O Brady Bowl. How do we choose which bowls to eliminate, easy just keep the original 10 bowls add maybe 3-5 more for the hell of it and boom you have 15 somewhat meaningful bowls.

The second more sensible solution is add a playoff system, while this will take away all New Year's Day bowls, it will be ten times more exciting than the current layout. Set it up similar to how the FCS runs their playoff, except you can you current four bowl locations to play neutral site games. Start the playoffs right after conference championship weekend. Have 32 teams make the playoffs, auto bids for major conference winners, once eight teams remain play those games 4 games at the Current BCS stadiums (Rose BowlOrange BowlSugar BowlFiesta Bowl) with the final four and championship held at one of those four stadiums. While my idea is very rudimentary, it is a jumping off point and is definitely feasible. However it will never work because initially it will not make as much money as the current format does for ESPN and the NCAA.

Regardless of the solution it is only a matter of time, before people stop watching the bowls altogether, I mean even ESPN hosts think the current number of bowls is ridiculous and  no ESPN employee is supposed to bad mouth the Company.

****Tbred Prediction Notre Dame +3 tomorrow against the U, house money*******