FOOT-BALL: "With Thomas and Ivory both on IR," I emailed Isaac on Thursday, "the Saints may well lose this game." He denied it. Insisted on the suckitude of his home team, that I was underestimating how "terrible" (his word, not mine) the Seahawks were. I told him that true though that might be, they only needed to win this game once.
Julius Jones wasn't that bad today, but if all I told you about today's game was that the Saints ran 22 times but passed it 60 you'd know something was seriously amiss. And then Marshawn Lynch, wow.
Football days like this one render me inarticulate, and that's even without getting into one of the more impressive defensive performances I've ever seen from the Jets tonight. Revis Island is real, and you don't want to be stranded there. Onto tomorrow.
The Seahawks are better now that they're playing with both Mike Williams and Matt Hasselbeck, but let's get serious -- that was the worst team that ever won an NFL playoff game.
ReplyDeleteWorse than the 2006 Bears? (Why yes, I did enjoy Manning losing last night.)
ReplyDeleteI am wicked looking forward to next week's Pats/Jets game. I am not so much looking forward to listening to Rex over the next 7 days.
ReplyDeleteThe more I see Lynch's run on the sports shows, the more I think it was less Lynch brilliance and more Saint lack of basic tackling skills.
ReplyDeleteI only watched it in real time, but I definitely got the impression that all 11 defensive players had Lynch in their grasp at some point during the run, and then each simply fell down, as if they were trying to grab the flag off his hip.
ReplyDeleteMissing a tackle happens all the time, but missing a tackle when a back is already barely moving or has come to a complete dead stop is something special.
ReplyDeleteAs I told Adam, the Seahawks beat three winning teams all season long: Bears (don't know how that happened); Chargers (by a TD in a game that the Chargers dominated on both sides of the ball except that Leon Washington had two kick return TDs and another long return that set the Seahawks up for a FG), and now the Saints. The only other teams the Seahawks beat: Arizona (twice), SF, Carolina, St. Louis. Alias: the other teams in the NFC West and the worst team in the NFL.
ReplyDeleteA person on another forum made an interesting point; it may be a symptom of how tacklers are focusing more on the ball, trying to strip it out, than simply tacking the carrier. I've (anecdotal alert) seen a lot more stripping attempts in the NFL over the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI've (anecdotal alert) seen a lot more stripping attempts in the NFL over the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI thought we were through talking about Favredonggate.
"Tackle instead of stripping the ball" That's my dad's 2nd favorite football curmudgeon rant. It's just ahead of "Fall on the ball" and "No one does a good coffin corner kick anymore."
ReplyDelete<span><span>"Tackle instead of stripping the ball" That's my dad's 2nd favorite football curmudgeon rant. It's just ahead of "Fall on the ball" and behind "No one does a good coffin corner kick anymore."</span><span>
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