411's NFL Round Up 1.08.08

Posted by Emmett Wilks on 01.08.2008

With the Playoffs here, new questions arise. Why have the running backs disappeared? Is Eli for real? And what are we to think if the Patriots fall? This and more in Wild Card Week edition of the Round Up!

The time of year we have all been waiting for is finally here. The Playoffs have begun. While a majority of the leagues fans sit at home, pinning for their team's lack of participation (well, maybe just me), the remaining teams battled it out in the Wild Card Weekend. Not to gloat or anything, but I was perfect on my predictions from last week, and hope the trend continues this week. Want everyone to check out the Covenant of the Gridiron from Derrick Robbins for a great breakdown of this weekends action. Now, onto the Round Up


QUICK HITS

- Call me crazy, but Troy Aikman may very well be the best color commentator of the era. His analysis of the game, presentation, and style are really fantastic. As I was never really of fan of Joe Buck calling football (I do think his baseball work is great), their combination of FOX Sunday football is probably my favorite to listen to in the playoffs.


- I know many people disagree with me, but can't we just let Fantasy Football die with the regular season. My feelings about Fantasy balling are well known, but really, just leave it in the out of the post season and let us all enjoy the games for their merits, which are quite frankly very strong.

- Bob Sanders selection of Defensive Player of the Year was a great call by the AP. A lot of talented defensive players had big years, but I do find it appropriate on many occasions to look beyond numbers and see impact. Sanders leads the league in terms of "impact," and an MVP award for the former Erie Cathedral Prep and Iowa star is a great honor.

- While Tom Brady's MVP selection was both appropriate and well deserved, no one should question who ever voted for Brett Favre to take the honor. MVP debates, like the Heisman trophy, always go back to the argument of what MVP means. Is it the best player on the best team? The guy with the best stats? Or the guy most important to his teams success? Clearly, whomever voted for Favre thought the latter. While Brady is the MVP, let's be serious. With that offense, if you took a very solid QB like say, I don't know, Jeff Garcia, that football team would still be 11-5. Take Favre away from Green Bay and put in a lesser QB, you may have an 7-9 or 8-8 ball club. Brady is our MVP, but don't forget Favre did something special this year too.





STAR RUNNING BACKS, WHERE ARE YOU!?!

I can scarcely remember a weekend when the running back position was so minuscule. While a good number of this weekend's touchdowns came on the ground, no running back did much of anything to the opposing teams. Clinton Portis 52 yards. Shaun Alexander 46 yards. Najeh Davenport, 16 rushes for 25 yards. LaDainian Tomlinson goes for 42 yards for goodness sake. The only team who mustered a really solid rushing game was the Giants. Backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs accounted for 100 yards and consistent rushing attempts this weekend. I have been struggles as what to make of the situation. Has the game of football so evolved that a former MVP in Shaun Alexander can go for 46 yards and still be on a winning team. It was not too long ago that holding a star running back to 50 yards or less was tantamount to a stellar defensive effort. Today however, with everything centered on to passing game, the importance of the running back position continues to be lowered. Sure, Davenport had 2 short TD's, Tomlinson had a great acrobatic, second effort score to seal the game against Tennessee, but really, no one did anything. This is not a new trend really. The last time a team had a truly great running back and won the Super Bowl was the Rams in 1999 with Marshall Faulk. The other backs that followed were either rookies (Jamal Lewis) or platoon players (Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes, any of the Patriots teams). That is the last seven Super Bowl champions without a truly great back lining up behind the quarterback. Still, if you ask a coach if he wants a big time back or not, he will take the back. But this weekend demonstrated with crystal clarity that win or lose, the running back positions importance is waning in this era of football. Defenses are just so big and fast that there is little run to run anywhere on the field. The passing game now incorporates the backs in such a way that the days of a pure bread bulldozer may be over. Football loses something of it brutal mystic with this.


FINALLY, SOMETHING TO BUILD ON

Eli Manning's performance against the Bucs was a revelation. Few have been more critical of Eli than I have. With the talent arrayed around him, this is a team is should be in this position. But in the football universe, should is a far way from earning a spot. Manning went 20 for 27, 185 yards, with 2 TD's and perhaps most importantly, 0 interceptions or turnovers. Watching the game, I was unfortunately expecting him to fail. This had nothing to do with being an Eagles fan, but just that accustomed feeling that somewhere along the line, Eli Manning will screw something up big time. When Bucs return man Michael Spurlock fumbled the 2nd half kickoff, one of my colleagues, whom hates the Bucs, was euphoric for a few moments, then sat down quietly and said "oh wait, Eli still has the ball." And this is a Dolphins fan, so the perception of Eli as a complete underachiever and screw-up goes beyond those in the NFC East. While I don't believe they will be able to go into Dallas in a playoff atmosphere and win, do not discount this moment for Eli, and the Giants nation as a whole. He needed this monkey off his back as much as his brother, whose comparisons are really just unfair, needed to win that Super Bowl for some ridiculous validation. Eli now has a playoff victory, and it cannot be taken away from him. He guided his team to a playoff birth in the NFL's most competitive division, and beat a great defensive team in there house. Therein lays the foundation for something special in the next few season. Every QB needs a performance to quite critics, but most importantly, remind themselves that they do indeed belong and are in fact great players. Eli still has a very long road to travel, but the road is very well light if he has the determination to travel it.


SOMETIMES LIFE IS JUST B.S.

Down here in South Florida, the main topics of conversation have revolved around the Dolphins search for a new head coach. New VP of Football Bill Parcells and GM Jeff Ireland are seemingly leaning toward Dallas line coach Tony Sparano for the job. What bothers me most of all is the totally unfair handling of Cam Cameron in the whole situation. Before everyone rolls their eyes thinking me naïve, I do get it. The NFL is a business and like the rest of the world, is rarely, if ever, fair. But all fairness aside, there comes the question of practicality. Cameron was handed a team with exactly 2 players from the 2000 to 2004 drafts still on the roster. TWO. Also fired GM Randy Mueller did a poor job of player management in his time there, and was rightly let go. I cannot say the same for Cameron, who did what he could with the situation. Let out to dry by an inexperienced offense, and later by what was supposed to be a solid defense, the team fell into a spirally whirlwind of mistakes, injuries, and inexperience. What really got to me was the total lack of apathy given by Parcells and company regarding a first year head coach. Parcells went 3-12-1 his first season with the Giants. Bill Belichick went 6-10 his first year. Andy Reid is Philly went 5-11. All would eventually become great coaches. Cameron's firing was a signal of cleaning house and change in South Florida, but his lose seems more the result of the house cleanings collateral damage than necessary target. Cameron will no doubt be taking any one of the offensive coordinator jobs this season, as well he should. But the Dolphins will again be forced to start from scratch for the third time in four years in 2008. In the end, it isn't fair, it isn't right, but it is reality. Had Cameron's crew not blown early season opportunities, we very well may not be having this discussion. But they did, so Cam now joins the unfortunate carousel of NFL head coaches who are now seeking new homes.

IF THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS, WHAT SHOULD WE THINK?


Discussions are abounding right now about the Jacksonville Jaguars chances against the Pats this Sunday. Like I have said in previous articles, there is really no such thing as an upset in the NFL. Surprises may happen, but there is no such thing as an Appalachian State over Michigan or Stanford over USC. But I really got to thinking this weekend. What if the Patriots do lose in the playoffs this year? What are we to make of this team? Traditional thought would be to put them into the class of great season that fell short in the playoffs. But let's be serious here, from Week 1 against the Jets, there has not been anything standard or traditional about this team. This is a special team like non other in my short lifetime. Maybe it really hasn't sunk into our collective consciousness yet, but this was an UNBEATEN TEAM. This was done only one other time in the 75 year history of the NFL. This is not 2006 Chargers, 1994 Cowboys or even 1998 Vikings. How are we to react if this Pats team should come up short and not win the Super Bowl. The honest answer is, I don't know. My first thought is that they would firstly replace the 1998 Vikings as the best team to not win a championship in NFL history. But after that, what do we think. Are they to ascend to a special pantheon of chock artists that no one in the history of sports, with the exception of maybe the 1980 Soviet hockey team, has ever reached. I will go to the cop out answer and say that yes indeed, the Patriots should be proud of the regular season they put together. Winning 16 consecutive games is hard in the NBA or MLB, let alone doing it in the NFL. As of right now though, there is something of a mystic around this team that cannot be properly surmised in words. They have blown out people, and meet challenges head on and triumphed with equal vigor. If they should happen to fall to Jacksonville, Indy, or whomever along the way, that mystic will be permanently gone, and likely not to reappear for quite some time. This is honestly a question I post to the reading public. What if this should happen? How do we assess the 2007 New England Patriots?