Why does nobody care about NBA Training Camp?

Why does nobody really care about NBA training camp?

NBA training camp is upon us and here’s something you might have noticed…. Nobody cares. There’s basically a countdown from the end of the NFL season to the draft and then from the draft a countdown to training camp. There’s never really that much excitement about either of the NBA equivalents. The question I’m wondering today is why? Don’t let the first 6 or so posts fool you screen and roll out is going to pride itself on being a dual sport blog. So with that being said let’s roll up our sleeves into the nitty gritty of our first basketball post.

The NBA is a superstar driven league, this is apparent to anyone the size of the teams makes it apparent. While a one superstar on a group of 11 is valuable a superstar in a group of 5 is even more so. There are only 12 active players on an NBA roster when it comes to game day, while there are 45 on the NFL equivalent. Roster turnover in the NBA is about the same as it is in the NFL at 30% however it comes out to 3 NBA players as opposed to 16 in NFL. It takes a lot of the fun out of things like training camp. One of the big draws of NFL training camp is watching all of the new pieces meshing together to create a cohesive defense and offense. There are so many different parts to an NFL team, offense, defense, special teams and inside those sections even more specialized areas. You have your offensive line, QB, wide outs, Running backs and on defense your defensive line, linebackers, and secondary. The NBA has starting five that plays both offense and defense. There are significantly less permutations to imagine when it comes to NBA rosters. When it comes to NFL rosters you’re thinking how your players match up against other teams, how they’ll work with certain personal packages, how they’ll work with your coaches play calling. There’s just so much more information to absorb which tends to drives stat geeks like me into frenzy.

Otherwise known as the Lakers/Celtics Invitational

Just for a quick second I want you to do something for me. Name 10 NBA stars, not super stars just stars that weren’t top 15 draft picks. Can you do it? Seriously just 10. I got Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer and maybe…. Monta Ellis? Zach Randolph? Gerald Wallace? The NBA is a league made up of the things we expect. Pretty much every single good player in the NBA a good deal of people thought they would be a good. The NFL is composed of undrafted and late drafted superstars’ not just stars, I’m sure we can all list quite a few.  Tony Romo, James Harrison, Antonio Gates, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Hines Ward, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Brian Westbrook just off the top of my head. I’m a Lakers fan…………………oh sorry I was just basking in the collective glow of owning the NBA. They might as well call the NBA Finals the Lakers invitational. But outside of my ridiculous hubris the NBA seriously lacks parity. 8 teams have won the past 30 NBA championships. While their have been 14 different NFL champions in the past 20 years. Seriously how much fun is that for the rest of the league to basically know at the beginning of the year you have no chance? That’s what makes the NFL great. I’m a Raiders fan and we’re terrible, but every year I have hope, I have hope that this year; this year will be the year we finally turn it around. Teams like the Colts are so special in the NFL because it’s so hard to stay good in the NFL the fact the Colts have made the playoffs for 11 straight years is amazing. The Lakers on the other hand have missed the playoffs only 5 times in their entire existence. It happens almost every year in the NFL a worst to first story, how many times do we have stories like that in the NBA. Rarely if ever, that’s what made the Thunder so endearing last year they were an authentic 1 year turnaround story. They went from 23 to 50 wins, things like that never happen in the NBA.

Basketball doesn’t do enough advertising for training camp/pre season/draft. The NFL is an advertising machine that no other league in America can compete with, that’s clear. However the NBA can learn a lot from the NFL in the way that there is no offseason in football. They’re always holding your hand as they direct you to another stage of their product. Super bowl’s over??? Oh snap the draft is only 2 months away better start learning about college football players. Oh the draft just happened??? Training camp is just around the corner. The NFL is constantly creating anticipation for the next stage in its yearly football onslaught. There truly is no offseason. Normally after the NBA finals Is over there’s a lull and the draft and then another lull and then training camp. Free Agency can be interesting at times (queue Miami heat having a parade after having won…………what exactly??) This is probably the most anticipated NBA season in 10 or 12 years and opening night still won’t compare to that of the NFL. I think we all understand that to a certain degree we’re comparing apples and oranges here with the NBA and the NFL, but there are still a lot of things that David Stern should be stealing from Commish Goodell.

You could swear these guys won something...right??

Now the final question: What can the NBA do to fix it? The NBA has the final four; one of the most watched sporting events in America perfect for cultivating recognizable names for its league. They don’t take advantage of it because of its one and done rule. Nobody ever really builds any attachment to college basketball or college basketball teams because the players on those teams are only around for 1 or 2 years at the max. They should implement something similar to what baseball does either you come straight from high school or you go to college but you have to be there 3 years. That seems like a clear win win, players that want to come in straight from high school still can, while players who go to college will actually commit academically to a school as opposed to the ridiculousness of the one and dones of current college basketball. Secondly the NBA needs to do more to emphasize the importance of players 4-12 on an NBA roster. In the NFL we talk a lot about why the Offensive line and special teams is important and why a number of areas where we might not know the players are vital to a team’s success. How often do we talk about the importance of players who set good screens in the NBA or players who box out or are good help defenders? If the NBA wants to create a league where you want to monitor every move you have to a make a league where every player matters.

Tuesday Morning Week 3 Recap

Week 3 Predictions Head up: 9-7 Straight Up

Week 3 Predictions against the spread 7-9

Record so far 17-14

Another week goes by in the NFL and we know a little bit more about things. There are only 3 undefeated teams left while there are 5 teams yet to get a victory. A pretty good divisional Sunday night game was followed up by a dreadful divisional Monday night game. Adrian Peterson showed me he was still the most spectacular back in the NFL and Charlie Batch showed he still has something left. So let’s get into the Tuesday quick hits.

Don’t Bury us yet

You do know they lost by 22 right Roy??

So going into this week I along with a lot of other people were ready to bury both the Vikings and the Cowboys, so of course they go out and put together wins. However only one of those wins should really ease the nerves of a fan base. If I’m a Vikings fan I still think they’re a bad team after watching that game against the Lions.  This truly speaks to how good Adrian Peterson is but he won that game basically on his own. The question being how many more games can he win by himself? 3? 4? Whatever it is, it’s not enough to get into the playoffs. The man has 392 on 5.6 yards a carry but he can’t overcome Brett Favre giving up the ball 7 times through 3 games. The Vikings beat the Lions but they still have a lot of things to get right going into the bye week. However the Cowboys seemed to play with a bit more urgency on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. They generated their first turnover of the year and decided not to stop there getting 3 more from the Texans. This combined with a competent ground game to complimented Tony Romo well.  Who would have thought Roy Williams would be the guy that carried the Dallas passing game against the sieve that is the Texans secondary. Each week for the Cowboys they’ve had a different receiver step up to the plate, if they can get all 3 going this offense could really become the juggernaut we all thought it would be coming into this season.

Andy Reid takes a bow

So after a week of questions for Andy Reid and one bloggers staunch support Michael Vick goes out and puts on a show once again to the tune of 4 touchdowns and 320 total yards of offense. There’s been a lot of writing about Michael Vick here but he’s been by far the most interesting story so far of this NFL season. If somebody would have told me through three weeks the Eagles would have abandoned Kevin Kolb in favor of Michael Vick and he had put up 750 yards 6 touchdowns and no picks through 3 games I would have been flabbergasted. He’s absolutely tearing it up and sure he’s played 2 pretty bad defenses and one that didn’t prepare for him, but he can only play who’s on the schedule. Looking at said schedule he has two more terrible pass defenses coming up in the Redskins and the 49’ers. So I suppose now is the time for Michael Vick to let the good times roll as they say. The only question that remains in Eagle land is if they actually trade Kevin Kolb or try to ride this hot hand as far as it takes them before they make a decision at the end of the year under a new collective bargaining agreement.(hopefully a new collective bargaining agreement because nobody wants a lockout)

Has the Sanchize put it all together?

Mark Sanchez knows who hes going to be for Halloween

I’m sure J-E-T-S JETS!!! JETS!!! JETS!! Fans are excited about the recent play of Mark Sanchez. Back to back 3 touchdown no interception games against division rivals. Could this be the dream Jets fans had dancing in their heads this off season, their young quarterback taking the next step and leading an explosive offense to go along with a dominant defense? Only one problem there Gang green fans………that defense isn’t looking so dominant anymore. Sure there’s no Revis Island but even sans Revis a top 5 defense shouldn’t be giving up 363 to Chad Henne. The Jets are currently the 19^th overall defense in the league and 26^th against the pass, call me a blasphemer if you must but I don’t think Darrelle Revis Is that good. I could be wrong and he could be the difference between 26^th and 1^st. The thing is the Jets offense has become more a model of efficiency than an explosive one. They’re still ranked 26^th in passing offense, they just have 6 touchdowns to go with that rating. Those numbers are a bit skewed because of the unfathomable 74 yards they put together in that opening night debacle against the Ravens. The past two weeks Sanchez has put up in 220 and 256 in bonafide quarterback duels both of which he won, and one of which was against Tom Brady.

Ladies and Gentleman these are your teams chasing the 72 Dolphins

Steelers, Chiefs, Bears. No matter how many times I see those 3 teams next to each other I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that these are last 3 undefeated teams. The Steelers wouldn’t be such a surprise if they had Big Ben but not only do not have Big Ben they don’t have his back up….or HIS BACK UP…. They’re currently on their 4^thBucs on the road. The Steelers to me are the most impressive of the bunch they seem to be solid in every phase of the game. They have Rashard Mendenhall to anchor the running game, Hines Ward and the speedy Mike Wallace to pair with a hopefully de mulleted Big Been come week 5 and the best defense in the league. The Chiefs on the other hand put together their most complete game of the year, with both a dominant defense and surprising guest appearance by Matt Cassel and the Chiefs passing game. If Matt Cassel can put together some semblance of a confident passing offense going forward in combination with Charlie Weiss and Dwayne Bowe the Chiefs might be the team to beat in the AFC West. The Bears on the other hand beat everyone’s NFC North darling (including mine) the Packers. How’d they do it? Special teams, just enough offense, and the Packers absolutely imploding. That had the classic look of a game the Packers lost more than the Bears won.  The Packers had a team record 18 penalties last night for 152 yards. One of which called back a touchdown. The pass rush that we expected to get to Aaron Rodgers didn’t and he threw it all over the field especially in the short game to the tune of 316 yards. But at the end of the day the Bears won and they should be commended for that. I just think that looking at the resumes of our 3 world beaters they remain the least impressive.

Week 3 Preview

Looking back on my week 2 preview I sure did miss pretty badly on some things, but we’ll forget about all of those now as we forge ahead into a new week of predictions and prognostication. Since I gave a week 2 recap earlier in the week they’ll only be a few quips before we jump into the picks.

The best team in Texas is the Texans

Doesn’t that just seem right? I mean if you forget about the cowboys being America’s team and blah blah blah. How many team mascots are the residents of where the team resides? That seems absolutely genius, how could you not support a team whose mascot is you. The Texans stomp the Colts in week one with their rushing attack and have a miraculous 17 point comeback in the last 18 minutes of the second half against the Redskins on the arm of Matt Schaub. So now they come into week 3 with a battle against the cowboys to send the boys into 0-3 purgatory and plant their flag as the team of Texas for 2010. 

I apparently forgot the Colts are good

Shame on me for picking against the Colts. Those guys are really good and have been really good ever since Peyton Manning captain "of the you can’t grab the neck" express got there. (Check the video 15 seconds in) Eventually the Colts will stop being good, it happens to all dynasties eventually their stars fade and we move into a new era for the sport. The Colts however aren’t done with their era just yet, don’t let that week one beat down fool you, just because they won’t start this year 10-0 or 14-0 doesn’t mean they won’t end up where they want to be. The Super Bowl.

The 49’ers are sore losers

If you haven’t heard Frank Gore’s comments about their loss to the Saints you should really check em out. Here are some choice tidbits “They’re a good team, but they couldn’t handle us out there. They couldn’t handle us.”  “We whupped their behind up and down the field. They can’t stand up with us. And we beat ourselves for the second week in a row. We’ve got to change that.”.Um sorry to be the one to break the news to you Frank but you guys lost, they did handle you out there because they beat you. I don’t think you beat yourselves against the Seahawks I think you got spanked 31-6. But hey I’m sure all 31 of those were from you guys beating yourselves too.

Now onto 16 glances into the future

Cleveland @ Baltimore

Baltimore -10

After a pretty bad performance against the Bengals defense the Ravens get just the pick me up they need……the Cleveland Browns. For Browns fans things have gone from bad to worst replacing Jake Delhomme with the incomparable Seneca Wallace. Combine Senecca Wallace with that stingy Baltimore D and you have a recipe for disaster. 10 seems like a bit much but I think this is week Joe Flacco finally gets on track, or at least that’s what my fantasy team hopes. 

Ravens 20

Browns 6

Cincinnati @ Carolina

Cincinnati -3.5

What do you make of the Bengals? They get crushed in week one by the Pats only to slug it out and beat what seems like a very tough Baltimore team at home. Onething I do know, Carson Palmer has played terribly. He hasn’t looked good in any minute of a game that’s mattered yet, he put up those numbers in New England in garbage time. Palmer had 79 yards, 1 int, 1 sack, and one fumble until the game was 24-3 at which point the Pats eased off and he got some things going. Last week he put together a horrendous 16/35 for 167 yards. Yeah I guess having T.O. really isn’t helping him too much.  The Panthers on the other hand have lost by 2 touchdowns in back to back games and are starting a rookie quarterback in Jimmy Clausen. This seems like a battle of two teams we expected to better than they are. I think the Bengals have a bit more legitimacy to them.

Bengals 20

Panthers 13

Dallas @ Houston

Houston -3

Whats wrong with the NFL when this guy is a top 3 QB

This strikes me as one of the most interesting games of the week. This game to me seems like the game the Cowboys need to save their season. If they win they’re 1-2 heading into the bye week, they have time to regroup refocus and get going in very winnable division. However they lose this game and they’re 0-3 and more damning than anything probably just not a very good football team.  The cowboys haven’t generated a turnover in two games this season, combined with their inability to score touchdowns means they’re stagnating on offense and defense. You don’t want to be stagnant facing this Texans team, they’ve begun the season demonstrating mastery of both the running and the passing game and they plan to use both to tremendous effect against the cowboys. However if there’s something Houston can’t do its stop the pass. They have one of the league’s best pass rushers in Mario Williams who’s put up a sterling 4 sacks so far this season, but they’ve given up 411 yards passing per game. 411 yards!!!! That’s ridiculous, sure they’ve played Peyton Manning and Donovan Mcnabb, but Tony Romo is easily in Mcnabb’s class and he plans on putting up another 400 against them. However I still see Houston putting Dallas out of their misery in another tight game

Texans 34

Dallas 30

San Francisco @ Kansas City

San Francisco -1

These are two teams that seem to be going in opposite directions but aren’t that far apart. The 49’ers are 0-2 but they absolutely gave away that game Monday night after that debacle in Seattle. With that being said part of being a good team is making your breaks and knowing how to close people out.  The 49’ers clearly don’t know how to do that yet. They’re heading into a tough environment with new arrowhead stadium. which was rocking for the Chargers and should be just as raucous for their suddenly competitive chiefs’ team.  I think the Chiefs have put together back to back wins against a good Chargers team and bad Browns team on the road. They will keep themselves in games with their defense and special teams but outside of Jamal Charles and Thomas Jones their offense is nonexistent. If the 49’ers figured out their play calling conundrum last week and bring some of their offensive momentum into this game they get their first win.

49’ers 24

Chiefs 20

Detroit @ Minnesota

Minnesota -10

This is a must win for the Vikings and I think they finally get it but this line seems entirely too high for these teams. The Lions were a botched call away from a win in week 1 and an onside kick recovery from a scary proposition for the eagles in week 2. The Vikings on the either hand had two loses that weren’t as close as the final scores indicate. They need to put together some semblance of an effective passing game or people are going to keep making Adrian Peterson the most spectacular running back in the game who can only break 14 yard runs because they’re 8 guys in the box every snap. I think they limit Favre's turnovers to…..2? Just enough to beat a tough lion’s team that can’t seem to catch a break

Vikings 27

Lions 20

Buffalo @ New England

New England -14

The spread on this game is 14 for good reason. The Pats just put together a terrible performance against a team they absolutely hate in the jets. Tom Terrific was anything but and now they face a Bills team that just got obliterated by the Packers. These bills are looking for a spark in…….wait for it……wait for it………..Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah good luck with that, the Pats get back on track against probably the worst team in the NFL in resounding fashion

Pats 38

Bills 17

Atlanta @ New Orleans

New Orleans -4.5

The Saints will miss you...and your  haircut

I don’t think I’ll have an upset special of the week because it tends to force people into making picks they don’t really believe in. However if I had one this would be it. I think the Falcons will win this game here’s why. The Saints  just lost Reggie Bush who is much more important to their offense than he’s given credit for. Watch the tape on the 49’ers game and you’ll see two people on Reggie anytime he leaked out of the backfield 1.This opens up the offense for other people and 2.He still made plays while double teamed, the Saints will miss that. They just came from a gift of a game from the 49’ers. Sure the good teams make their own breaks and find a way to win, but good teams tend not to need 4 turnovers to beat an Alex Smith offense. So far they’ve face Brett Favre and Alex Smith two quarterbacks who aren’t making anybody nervous; at this point just the sheer competence and composure of Matty Ice will be enough combined with a tough Falcons D to get them an upset in Nawlins.

Falcons 24

New Orleans 20

Tennessee @ New York

New York -3.5

I really don’t know what to make of the Giants, they beat what looks like a bad Carolina team and get absolutely steam rolled by the Colts. I mean that seems like the formula for a bad team, but they just had a terrible game plan going into that game. They got behind and they started passing, and then they passed some more and played right into the Colts hands. However I don’t know if they’ll have a better game plan this week against the Titans. Tennessee on the other hand just got crushed by the Steelers defense but I think a lot of people will have a similar result this year. The stats say the Steelers bottled up Chris Johnson but there was a questionable holding call on an 80 yard touchdown run. That run counts and his numbers and the dynamic of that game are completely different, that game was close enough to where a touchdown could have changed its complexion. I think Vince Young has a bounce back game and C.J. puts up 125+.

Titans 23

Giants 20

Pittsburgh @ Tampa Bay

Pittsburgh -2.5

These teams are pretty far apart as far as 2-0 teams go. By the end of the year with Big Ben back in the fold and if this defense remains healthy these two teams will be in different leagues. However in week 3 there is no Big Ben and Tampa Bay is riding high on confidence in their young QB and their suddenly feisty defense. However the Steelers will show them that their defense isn’t feisty, or plucky, or any of those words we use to describe people that play past their talent level. The Steelers D plays up to its talent level and it’s an awfully high talent level.

Steelers 17

Bucs 9

Philadelphia @ Jacksonville

Philadelphia -3

The Michael Vick era in Philadelphia begins with a team that’s coming off an absolutely terrible effort in San Diego. The Jaguars are looking to get on the rebound against a Philadelphia team that just squeaked out a tough win against the Lions. The Eagles clearly can’t stop the passing attack and even more troubling can’t seem to stop backs catching the ball out of the backfield.  Javhid Best just went off on them to the tune of 9 catches 154 yards. You think Mo Jo looks at those numbers and thinks geez I’m better than Javhid Best I should kill these guys. Can everyone guess who I play against in fantasy football this week???? That’s right Mo Jo. Well I have a feeling he leads his fantasy team to victory against me but comes up short in real life

Eagles 31

Jaguars 20

Washington @ St. Louis

Washington -3.5

I don’t know why the line is this close, maybe my feelings on this are wrong but Washington is a pretty good team. They lost a tough one to a 2-0 Texans team and beat a bad Dallas team on a night when they couldn’t generate any offense. St. Louis seems like a classic Donovan Mcnabb throws a couple of beautiful deep balls against an overmatched team type of game. The Redskins defense will also get some of its confidence back against a rookie QB.

Skins 23

Rams 10

Oakland @ Arizona

Arizona -4.5

Eyebrows like this can lead men to victory

This game is probably the awful bowl of the week. Here’s a secret for you folks (anybody who knows me already knows this) I’m a Raiders fan. An absolute die hard one.  Sometimes it hurts to write negative things about the Raiders but I try to be honest as I can with a team I have very little objectivity about. I said last week they needed to wake up and maybe Bruce Gradkowski did just that with a second half flurry against the Rams. The only problem was they needed a second half flurry to beat the Rams. This would seem like a recipe for disaster if they weren’t facing a team that just got beat 41-7 last week.  I think Gradkowski and his massive brows grow their Oakland legend with another road win.

Raiders 27

Arizona 24

Indianapolis @ Denver

Indianapolis -5.5

Hmmm Colts vs. Broncos. I swear I’ve seen this game somewhere before. Oh yeah they beat them last year 28-16 and in 2007 they beat them 38-20 and they blew them out twice in the playoffs to the tune of 49-24 and 41-10. Those games are from the mid 2000’s but the point remains the same. The Colts absolutely own the Broncos there should be a big blue horse shoe up when they head into mile high on Sunday. I have a feeling their lease isn’t up yet, Peyton taught me last week not to bet against him because he can still do it at a high level. Well he does it this week.

Colts 31

Broncos 17

San Diego @ Seattle

San Diego -5.5

The Chargers got their act together last week against an overmatched Jaguars team and the Seahawks had their high hopes deflated at the hands of the Broncos. Well the Chargers are a bit sad they didn’t get to pop the balloon but they’re more than happy to let the rest of the air out of it. The Seahawks need to get back the energy they had in that week one match up against the 49’ers and they’re hoping that they’re home crowd will provide it for them. The problem is the Chargers aren’t the team to just give games away in the week one lost to the Chiefs they made it within a few yards of tying that game and sending into OT. They won’t need any close game theatrics this time. Phillip Rivers hooks up with Antonio Gates a few times, yells at his offensive line and the Chargers move to 2-1.

Chargers 27

USC Northwest 13

New York @ Miami

Miami -2.5

This plays out as the closet game of the week to me. You had the Jets getting all of their toughness back beating on the team that might hate them the most in the Patriots. While the Dolphins officially set us all into is Brett Favre is a zombie talk with their week 2 defensive performance. The pats played predominantly zone against Mark Sanchez and he used that to his advantage going 15/18 against the zone. However the Dolphins are the 6^th best pass defense in the league and they don’t play a lot of zone. You combine that with the Dolphins rushing attack meeting a Kris Jenkinless Jets Defense. The fins go 3-0

Dolphins 17

Jets 13

Green Bay @ Chicago

Green Bay -3

The best game of the week is on Monday night. We should all count ourselves lucky for that coming to pass. In the preseason this week 3 Monday night game seemed like an opportunity for the Packers to beat up on an overmatched NFC north rival now it’s a battle for the top of the division. The Bears have surprised mostly all of us with their play while we all expected the Packers to be good. One thing the Bears haven’t fixed is their offensive line, and that doesn’t bode well for them as they’re about to face human wrecking ball Clay Matthews. Aaron Rodgers V Jay Cutler is 2-0 For Rodgers so far with wins of 6 and 7 points. Count me on the Packers bandwagon because I think they make it 3-0 and I don’t think it’s within 7 points. Rodgers goes on the road and claims division supremacy in the early season.

Packers 27

Bears 17

Never trust a fat man with a mustache.

So as anyone could see Andy Reid read my blog realized I was a genius and decided that winning is more important than looking like he got things right with D Mcnabb. Nah…. Who knows what the hell Andy Reid is doing but I do know that he’s pretty much killed any sort of trust he could have with Kevin Kolb. Imagine you get sick and miss a week of work, your boss tells you “don’t worry you won’t lose your job because you’re sick” some guy comes in and proceeds to kicks ass at your job.  On Monday your boss says “don’t worry yeah he was awesome but it’s still your job.” Then on Tuesday he says “sorry he gets your job now, you can go get us coffee or something I really don’t care.” That’s what Andy Reid just did, he just basically told Kevin Kolb don’t believe anything I ever say I’ll replace you at the drop of a hat.  This wouldn’t be as damning if they hadn’t traded the best quarterback in their franchises history in order to make Kevin Kolb their “undisputed” starting QB and face of the franchise. Don’t get me wrong I think this is the right move, I think Vick gives them the best chance to win now, but Andy Reid was in a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. It seems like he’d rather be damned with a few more wins under his very very large belt, and I can definitely respect that. 

             

At least the children still trust Andy Reid

   So now the question becomes what the Eagles do now. You have your starting QB who has one year left on his deal and you have your backup quarterback who is clearly alienated making 12 million bucks next year. Honestly I thought they were  going to go with Kevin Kolb and maybe try to trade Vick while his value was at its highest but not now that they’ve decided not to go that route what do they do? Try to trade Kevin Kolb? There’s no way any team gives them more than 20 cents on the dollar for him now, they can just wait the eagles out. They got rid of one quarterback quandary to only make another one a year later, that seems like a clear sign of poor management and the eagles have always been represented as one of the most well put together franchises in football but I just saw the patriots handle a similar situation 10 times better than the eagles have. Whatever they do they’ll be roundly criticized for trading Mcnabb unless he flounders with the Redskins which doesn’t seem all that likely two weeks and 600 yards into his redskins career. 

Tuesday Morning Week 2 Recap

Week 2 Predictions Head up   8-7

Week 2 Predictions against the spread 7-7 (1 Push)

Record so far this year: 8-7

Every Tuesday morning I’ll try to have a quick hits section about 4 or 5 things that stuck out to me from this weekend’s slate of action. We’ll start off with my record for the previous week then get into some of the bigger surprises/disappointments of the action.

2-0 surprises

If somebody would have told me before the season that the Chiefs, Bears, and Bucs would be 2-0 to start the season I would have asked them why they were giving me weird NFL predictions, then I would have said they were ridiculous. But apparently coordinators matter in the NFL as Mike Martz has invigorated the passing attack in Chicago, while Scott Pioli is trying to relive the glory years of the Patriots with Romeo Crenell and Charlie Weiss in KC. However it’s not just coordinators it’s also a youth movement going on in both KC and Tampa Bay, the Bucs seem to be reinvigorated by an influx of both offensive and defensive playmakers while the Chiefs seem to be doing the same with the added draw of an explosive special teams.  The chiefs only have two real contributors on their defense over 30 in Mike Vrabel and Jon McGraw, their average age of a starter on their defense is 26.The Bucs are lead by the veteran presence of Ronde Barber one of the few players left from the Bucs super bowl championship of 2002, their defense is even younger coming in at an average age a shade over 25. While the Bears are surprising as well they have a good deal of talent and recognizable names: Jay Cutler, Greg Olsen, Matt Forte, Brian Urlacher, Devin Hester, and Tommie Harris. This Bears team was more a question of using the talent properly and executing. Not many of us thought Jay Cutler could, but through two games he’s been up to the challenge with 5 touchdowns, only 1 interception and a quarterback rating of 121.2. The question remains if any of these teams have it in them to continue to succeed during the long haul of the season or will they whither under the pressure of raised expectations like the Denver Broncos of last year. Only time will tell.

0-2 Disappointments

Even John Madden doesn't think he's having fun out there now

I’m looking at you Cowboys and Vikings. There were supposed to be 4 elite teams in the NFC: The Saints, Vikings, Packers, and Cowboys. Apparently only 2 of them got the message while the Packers and Saints reside in the land of the undefeated the boys and Vikings are simply defeated. What’s the problem?? Well in the land of Lakes it seems to be pretty simple: 1. Brett Favre isn’t nearly as committed to this team as he was to the team in 2009 2. He misses Sydney Rice a lot more than any of us thought he would or 3. He got a lot older really really fast.  I don’t have the answer but I do know the Vikings need to figure it out because the odds for 0-2 team’s making the playoffs reside at 13% and it doesn’t get any easier from here on out as they play a pretty tough Lions team in week 3 also looking for their first win. The Cowboys on the other hand have a bit more blame to go around. The defense was torn apart by Jay Cutler last week to the tune of 21/29, 277 yards, and 3 touchdowns, that comes out to a quarterback rating of 136.7 ouch. However while Tony Romo may be chucking it up and down the field with almost 700 yards in two games but he only has 2 touchdowns to go along with his 2 interceptions. The cowboys have a grand total of 139 rushing yards in their two games, so they can’t run the football and they’re not turning all those passing yards into touchdowns, while they can’t stop the pass. There are a lot of problems in Big D….oh wait did I say they can’t stop the pass? Who’s that coming up on the schedule next week? Could it be Matt Schaub of the 497 passing yards and 3 touchdowns? It looks both of these teams could be 0-3 before we know it.

Defense Wins Championships

Your starting quarterback can not have a Mullet

Are there two defensive players playing any better right now than Troy Polamalu and Clay Matthews? Matthews has an ungodly 6 sacks after two games and doesn’t appear to realize that the other people are trying to block him and he should play along sometimes. While Polamalu is reminding everyone that he is probably more important to the Steelers super bowl chances than Ben Roethlisberger.  I mean just based on hair alone I would value Troy over Big Ben. A ridiculous sideline interception and leaping goal line stop are just the highlights; it’s his consistent ability to be everywhere for the Steelers defense that pushes them from good/great into the truly elite. Speaking of elite defenses who thought the Colts would come into Sunday night and absolutely put the hammer to a giants O that never had a chance, Eli Manning looked like he wanted to stop playing after the 3^rd quarter. 4 Sacks and 3 forced fumbles combined for Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney, not to mention how many pressures and hits they got on Eli, a game like that would invoke the mercy rule in Madden. When Mathis and Freeney are given a lead on that track in Indy it seems like its lights out for any quarterback. This makes it all the more perplexing that the Giants didn’t try to establish the running game early.  Well I guess they couldn’t really get that two headed running game going when one of the heads couldn’t find his helmet because it was in the stands.

Hey!!!! Remember Michael Vick???

With a performance that would make any coach re evaluate his depth chart Mike Vick reminded us all that he was once the most exciting player in football and probably in all professional sports. Count me as one of the people who didn’t think a 30 year old Mike Vick would still have the speed or the arm strength to do the things he used to. Not only does he still have the arm strength and speed he seems to have added a bit of accuracy and calm within the pocket that you need from your quarterback if you want to have an elite passing game. If the Eagles hadn’t absolutely tied their wagons to Kevin Kolb Vick would be the starter week 3. This is one of the problems with the NFL, people don’t like to admit they’ve made mistakes, and they definitely don’t like to admit they’ve made mistakes with the most important position in the franchise. The Eagles sent Mcnabb packing for Kevin Kolb and all they’ve gotten from Kevin Kolb is an absolutely dreadful preseason and a concussion to show for it.  Too bad the Eagles gave Kolb a 12 million dollar contract extension based on…a 48-22 loss to the saints, a masterful 4 interceptions zero touchdown 2008 year, and a beat down he put on the Kansas City Chiefs. So 12 million bucks for one good game and one game with a lot of yardage and 3 picks. Hmmm I’m gonna say that wasn’t a smart move.

Week 2 Preview

The problem with week 1 of the NFL is that we (we being armchair sports experts) try to read too much into results. We want everything to be spelled out for use immediately. You suck in week one you suck forever. You’re great in week one you’re gonna crush everyone. A team like the Vikings who had Super Bowl aspirations isn’t suddenly doomed after a geriatric performance by Brett Favre. Nor are the Seahawks world beaters after the beat down they put on the 49’ers in week one. The key to viewing the first week is moderation. Don’t ignore the results but don’t take the approach of a small and only remember your immediate past. With that being said lets ignore the past paragraph I just wrote and draw some ridiculous conclusions from week one.

I swore I saw this guy at my rec league

The Bills still suck…in a big way
Unless the Miami Dolphins defense are more stout than anybody predicted the Buffalo Bills offense will be absolutely putrid this year. This was about as big a gap in talent and execution you can have in a 15-10 game. Throughout the entire game the Bills only manage to put together 2 drives of 8 plays or more. Trent Edwards has the look of a quarterback you wouldn’t trust leading your YMCA touch football team, yet there he was with a chance to win the game in the last 2 minutes. Not much a chance mind you as they started from their own 1 but still a chance none the less, he then proceeds to telegraph a dump off, under throw, and overthrow on consecutive downs. Watching a game like that I couldn’t help but think of the Bed and Breakfast offense of the now infamous 2006 Raiders, That juggernaut averaged 10.6 points per game while being dreadful in every phase.



The Chiefs however might not

All praise be to Mike Mayock

In an absolutely great Monday night performance by both the crowd and the team the Kansas Chiefs upset the Chargers in a game that was all about running the football, defense, and special teams. This game might be equal parts the Chargers not being as good as we thought and the Chiefs being better, but the end result is the chiefs are still better. The conservative play calling after the 21-7 lead should have bitten them in the ass luckily Phillip Rivers was too busy berating his teammates to throw too many completions. Being the Mike Mayock convert I am it was not surprising to see Dexter MccCluster going up and down the field like he was playing tag football on punt returns. Jamal Charles is still Chris Johnson light and is probably the 2nd most explosive runner in football, you combine that with a Thomas Jones who still looks relatively quick and powerful and you have yourselves the makings of a dominant running game.

The Patriots will crush you
The Patriots would just like to remind everyone that with basically this same team on offense 3 years ago they went through the league like they were playing madden on rookie. They were beating folks that year by an average 19.7 points per game!! Yikes. So of course watching Tom Brady and Wes Welker rip the Bengals to shreds is going to bring back memories of that, especially when the Bengals were supposed to be a legit playoff team with a pretty good secondary. The scariest thing about that game is that the Bengals still might be that and they were just outclassed.


If the Oakland Raiders are a sleeper somebody better wake them up
This year for the first time since the Kerry Collins Randy Moss era the Raiders were a chic sleeper pick by a number of people. Then week 1 happened. So after a 38-13 demolition that wasn’t even that close, what is there to say about the Raiders? Will they continue their “commitment to excellence” by losing 11 games for the 8th straight season? Giving up a 150 to Chris Johnson isn’t shameful; a number of good teams will do that. The problem is when Vince Young looks like he’s back playing at Texas running the option against you for 20 yards a touch, or he’s throwing 50 yard strikes to unguarded receivers. When Jason Campbell is wondering if he O line realizes they’re supposed to block the guys across from them not just watch them. A lot of people say the league is better when the Raiders are good, well they’ve been bad for quite a while and the league seems to be doing fine.

Arian Foster would like to say Hello

Same time next year right guys??

I don’t know if I can remember an opening weekend running performance like the one Arian Foster put on last Sunday. 33 carries, 231 yards, and 3 touchdowns in what must have been absolutely demoralizing to the Colts defense. Bob Sanders manages to make it through an entire quarter of a game before being injured and that’s their reward? How unfair is that. On the drive that pretty much ended the game he goes for consecutive runs of 42,11, and 25 yards the last of which was a touchdown to put the Texans up 27 10. As a defense you can’t give up back to back to back runs like that unless A. You don’t have the scheme/Talent to match up with the Texans or B. You’ve been getting pounded all game and you’ve packed it in. I tend to think it’s a little from column A and B. We all know the Colts aren’t opposed to packing it in when things don’t go their way Example 1A Week 16 2009 Colts vs. Jets. The Jets hang around a little too long for the colts liking, Peyton Manning gets hit a few times too many and bingo the Colts say enh…we don’t care about a perfect season anyway on the 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter.

Now let’s get to some predictions


Arizona @ Atlanta

Atlanta -6.5

The Falcons come out of week one 0-1 after losing to the Steelers lead by the reincarnation of Kordell Stewart aka Dennis Dixon. I would say that doesn’t bode well for them but they’re about to run into the train wreck that is the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals threw for 300ish yards, forced 4 turnovers, and were playing a rookie quarterback in his first game. Yet they only won by 3? Why you ask they also had 4 turnovers of their own, got that 300 yards on at a 50% completion clip and generally displayed the ineptitude of a team with Derek Anderson at quarterback. 6.5 is a bit much but I’d still take Matty Ice and the Falcons over this dreadful bunch.

Falcons 24

Cardinals 13


Tampa Bay @ Carolina

Carolina -3.5

Speaking of dreadful that’s the perfect word to describe the Bucs vs. Browns contest of last week. It took a classic Jake Delhomme Performance to power the Bucs to victory, however it was a win. Carolina comes into this game 0-1 not looking to fall two games behind a division foe. Luckily for the Bucs they’re facing one of the few Qb’s who threw more int’s than Delhomme in the opening weekend that being Matt Moore. Carolina can’t stop the pass and Josh Freeman is just good enough to make them pay. Carolina gets their run game going but it’s just not enough. I like the Bucs in a slight upset.

Buccaneers 17

Carolina 14


Baltimore @Cincinnati

Baltimore -1

This has the makings of a classic physical AFC North battle. Don’t let the passing numbers from last week fool you, both of these teams like to run the football first. Carson Palmer got yardage in garbage time down 31-3 up to that point he got nothing going against the Pats. Joe Flacco on the other had moved past a brutal sack fumble and interception in the early going to put together a solid game. Combine that with the Bengals getting to see a tougher defense in the Ravens and a Ravens team that has to be thinking payback after the Bengals swept them in the division last year. It’s the makings for an 0-2 start for the orange cats.

Ravens 27

Bengals 13


Kansas City @ Cleveland

Cleveland -3

So earlier I talked about Kansas City maybe being a bit better than previously thought and about how Cleveland looked pretty terrible. Well both of those things still apply. However a lot of the emotion from that new stadium opener for the Chiefs may have worn off and now it’s Cleveland at home. The only problem is everyone in Cleveland will be too busy burning their Lebron James jerseys to make it to the game.

Chiefs 16

Browns 10


Chicago @ Dallas

Dallas -7

Really by 7? That Dallas team is beating anybody by 7? I can’t see it. I think the Redskins D is going to be pretty good but that Cowboys Offense is ghastly. The starters on their offensive line weren’t that good and they’re missing two of them already, and Chicago has just the guy to punish them for it. Alex Barron I’d like you to meet Julius Peppers. Lovie Smith should line Peppers up against Barron on every passing snap; it’s the equivalent of throwing a deep pass trying to get pass interference or a touchdown, you’ll either get a sack or a holding penalty. That being said Jay Cutler is still terrible and the Cowboys defense showed they’re for real not allowing a redskins score outside 2 Redskins field goals. Dallas will get the win but it’ll be closer than previously thought

Cowboys 24

Bears 20


Philadelphia @ Detroit

Philadelphia – 3.5

The triumphant return of Michael Vick. Looking at his performance last week it’s hard not to come away impressed but the question remains can he put together something similar when a defense has a week to prepare. The Lions front four looked pretty good against the Bears but they also gave up 300 yards passing. The Lions will come out firing after getting robbed last week but with no Stafford and not enough talent the Birds take this one.

Eagles 23

Lions 14


Buffalo @ Green Bay

Green Bay -13

The Packers came out of week 1 pretty impressively, managing to beat the Eagles while only clicking offensively for a quarter. They’ll click for more than that against the Bills.

Packers 37

Buffalo 13


Minnesota @Miami

Minnesota -5.5

This might be the most intriguing game of the week. The Dolphins looked like a tough classic Bill Parcells team last week, but they also did it against the Bills. While the Vikings looked out of sorts but it was against the Super Bowl Champs. Even with no Sidney Rice I don’t see Brett Favre coming back to go start this season 0-2.

Vikings 24

Dolphins 17


Pittsburgh @ Tennessee

Tennessee -5

This is another game that sets up to be a battle of tough teams that try to beat you with their defense and their running games. The Steelers have managed to keep Chris Johnson bottled up rather well in their last matchup, however that was with Kerry Collins at QB not Vince Young. I think Vince adds another wrinkle to their offense that will get them the victory but it’ll be close

Titans 20

Steelers 17


St. Louis @ Oakland

Oakland -3.5

In the ugliest game of the week we have the Raiders vs. the Rams. The raiders laid an absolute egg last week while the Rams were competitive against what seemed like a pretty bad Cardinals team. The Raiders can’t stop the run and I think Steven Jackson gets going allowing Sam Bradford to build off a decent showing in his first game to get his first road victory.

Rams 20

Raiders 13


New England @ New York

New England -3.5

The last time the Jets saw the Patriots, Tom Terrific and the Pats hung up 31 on the Jets defense, while Mark Sanchez threw 4 interceptions. With Sanchez relegated to pretty much check downs and dump offs and Darrelle Revis nursing a sore hamstring thing aren’t looking good for the Jets. I see a bit of déjà vu.

Patriots 34

Jets 13


Jacksonville @ San Diego

San Diego -7

San Diego didn’t look that good Monday night against the Chiefs. Their offense was sluggish and their special teams were putrid. The Jags however looked relatively crisp in their passing game against what’s supposed to be a solid Denver secondary. One stat hangs over all of this however. The Jags lost both of the games they played on the West Coast last year 61-3. Yikes. I hate to say it but the Chargers get back on track and avoid another early season slump.

Chargers 31

Jaguars 20


Houston @ Washington

Houston – 3

Does Arian Foster continue his rampage or does the Skins D show that they’re for real. Hmmmm I’m gonna go with neither and say that Andre Johnson Victimizes however covers him and the Texans remind everyone that before game 1 everyone thought they could air it out and they still can.

Texans 27

Redskins 13


New York @ Indianapolis

Indianapolis -5.5

The Manning bowl 2. I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot by now but the last time Peyton Manning started a season 0-2 was his rookie year. Well sorry to say it Peyton but things have come full circle. The Colts can’t stop the run and Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs are just good enough to make them pay. The giants pull an upset and spoil the Colts home opener

Giants 31

Colts 28


San Francisco @ New Orleans

New Orleans -6

San Francisco just got taken apart by USC Northwest in the Seahawks home opener. Going from one of the toughest stadiums in the NFL to arguably an ever tougher home crowd and most definitely a tougher home team, Things don’t bode well for the Niner’s. Saints roll

Saints 37

Niner's 20

Maiden Voyage

Screen and Roll Out is going to be a blog mainly dedicated to Basketball and Football. That in itself is a rarity in the sports blogging world; blogs are normally dedicated to either one sport or all sports. Perhaps further down the road the blog will expand its coverage to all of the major sports but for the time being we'll stay in the realm of my modest knowledge of the pigskin and the peach basket. We'll kick things off later today with a preview for the slate of games this Sunday and Monday. We'll try to keep things on a 3 or so post a week basis. Something along the lines of Monday, Wednesday, Friday with special blogs for breaking news/stories of interest to me. See you back here later today for the rundown of the upcoming football.