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Do the Packers have the killer instinct to go all the way?

January 11, 2011 / John Paulsen

Honestly, this has been bothering me since Mike McCarthy took over as head coach of my beloved Packers, so the title of this post could easily read “Does Mike McCarthy have the killer instinct to go all the way?”

My historical evidence is purely anecdotal, but during the Holmgren/Favre Super Bowl years, it seemed like the Packers didn’t change their offensive strategy until they got up by three scores. Only then would they get a little more conservative and start working the clock with the running game. Several times over the past three seasons the Packers have had semi-control of a game only to let things slip away by playing too conservatively with a substantial amount of time remaining.

Case in point, towards the end of the second quarter of Sunday’s win over Philadelphia, leading 14-0, Green Bay just stopped the Eagles on a third-and-7. There was almost two minutes on the clock when Jason Avant was tackled on the Packers’ 11-yard line. With two timeouts remaining, McCarthy sat on his hands as the Eagles ran the clock down to 1:15 and kicked a field goal to cut the lead to 14-3.

External Sports, Fantasy Football, NFL

2011 NFL Playoffs Green Bay Packers Mike McCarthy Philadelphia Eagles

Dyer’s fourth quarter run saves Newton, propels Auburn to national title victory

January 11, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Here are five quick-hit thoughts about Auburn’s wild 22-19 win over Oregon in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

1. In the end, it was a freshman and not a Heisman winner who won it for Auburn.
Cam Newton played a great game. He completed 20-of-34 pass attempts for 265 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 65 yards on 22 carries. But he didn’t put together one of those special performances that Auburn fans were accustomed to seeing all year. His fourth quarter fumble set up LaMichael James’ touchdown run and Darron Thomas’ wild 2-point conversion pass to Jeff Maehl, which tied the game at 19-19 with 2:33 remaining. But in the end, Michael Dyer’s “controversial” 37-yard run set the Tigers up for Wes Byrum’s 19-yard game-winning field goal. I put “controversial” in quotation marks because it wasn’t really controversial, per se. He definitely wasn’t down and the refs never blew the whistle, but I’ve seen officials stop plays when a player’s forward momentum was less stopped than that. Still, credit Dyer for having the wherewithal to keep his knees off the ground when he was being tackled and the Auburn sideline for instinctively telling him to keep running when they saw he wasn’t down. The Tigers’ Heisman-winning quarterback played well but Dyer and Auburn’s defense were the main reasons the Tigers won their second national championship in school history. Seeing as how Dyer is only a freshman, Auburn’s backfield is set for the next couple of seasons.

2. Ted Roof defensive game plan was tremendous.
Roof will certainly sleep easy tonight. He had six weeks to figure out how to slow down Oregon’s explosive offense and that’s exactly what he did. This was an offense that led the nation in points per game (47.5) and was fifth in rushing yards per contest (290.1). Yet the Tigers held the Ducks to 19 points and 81 total rushing yards. That’s amazing. For weeks pundits debated whether or not Auburn’s defense would rise to the challenge and yet Roof’s squad made it look easy for most of the game. Even when the Ducks scored late to tie it at 19-all, Auburn didn’t make it easy for them around the goal line. And that drive was set up when Casey Matthews punched the ball out of Newton’s hands to give Oregon the ball at the 40-yard line, so Roof’s squad was put in a bad spot. What an incredible effort.

College Football, External Sports

2011 BCS National Championship Anthony Stalter Auburn Tigers Cam Newton Casey Matthews Darron Thomas Michael Dyer Michael Dyer run Nick Fairley Oregon Ducks

Les Miles to interview for Michigan opening?

January 10, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

According to ESPN.com, LSU’s Les Miles “anticipates” meeting with Michigan representatives to discuss the Wolverines’ head coaching vacancy.

Miles says no one from Michigan has contacted him directly yet and that he does not know when such a meeting with his alma mater might take place. According to the Detroit News, Miles and Michigan are expected to meet on Tuesday.
Miles says he cannot speculate about the substance of such a meeting and also says he is “extremely happy” at LSU and that his family is comfortable living in Baton Rouge.

Boy, Michigan fans have to be torn on this one. On one hand, Miles isn’t Brady Hoke, who could be one of the favorites to replace Rich Rodriguez. Hoke has done a nice job at San Diego State, but he doesn’t exactly rock UM fans’ boat.

On the other hand, Miles is freaking nuts. I swear he uses one of those origami fortunetellers that girls used to make in grade school to make decisions during games (especially in the fourth quarter). He may win, but it’s only by the stroke of God that he’s able to get away with some of the things he does during games.

It’ll also cost a small fortunate to convince him to leave Baton Rouge. He makes roughly $3.7 million a year at LSU and if Michigan AD David Brandon isn’t prepared to fork over that kind of money with what happened with Rodriguez, then he’ll have to “settle” for someone like Hoke instead.

That said, Miles is a true “Michigan Man” in every sense of the word. He knows that he can’t go winless against Ohio State or lose to Michigan State (ever). He gets what Michigan is about and in the end, that might be worth it to someone like Brandon, who obviously needs to hit a home run with his next hire.

College Football, External Sports

Les Miles

Report: Haley stripped Weis of play-calling duties during second half

January 10, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Apparently the Chiefs’ inability to move the ball offensively against Baltimore on Sunday was not coordinator Charlie Weis’ fault, but head coach Todd Haley’s.

According to Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports in Kansas City, Haley stripped Weis of his play-calling duties during the second half of the Chiefs’ 30-7 loss to the Ravens on Sunday.

From the Sporting News:

Jason Whitlock, of Fox Sports, tweeted during the game that the Chiefs’ offensive miscues were a direct reflection of Haley’s play-calling.
For much of the latter half of the season, rumors persisted that Haley and Weis were having issues working together, and then the announcement came that Weis was leaving Kansas City following the end of the NFL regular season to become new Florida coach Will Muschamp’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

If the report is true, then Haley has some explaining to do. Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs’ most explosive offensive playmaker, received just three touches in the second half. As John Paulsen put it to me over Skype, “that’s inexcusable.”

For the game, Baltimore held Kansas City to just eight first downs and 53 yards passing. The Ravens are good, but they’re not that good. If there were an abrupt change in playcallers, then it would make sense that the Chiefs struggled mightily to move the ball during the second half.

In some respects, I don’t blame Haley for doing what he did. Hey, Weis isn’t going to be around next year and the offense had been a sinking ship ever since he announced that he was heading to Florida, so why wouldn’t Haley try to correct the problem before it was too late? After all, it is his team and he would ultimately be the one who had to answer to why the Chiefs once again lost another playoff game.

That said, it’s not fair to Matt Cassel and the rest of the players for Haley to make a move like that. The offense had worked under Weis all season and seeing as how the score was only 10-7 at halftime, it’s not like the Chiefs were out of the game. It makes you wonder if that was Haley’s plan from the start and as soon as the offense started sputtering, he was going to remove Weis as the playcaller.

We’ll see what Haley says in his final press conference later this week.

External Sports, NFL

2011 NFL Playoffs Charlie Weis Kansas City Chiefs.Todd Haley Todd Haley Charlie Weis

PlayoffBlitz’s Week 1 Results

January 10, 2011 / John Paulsen

Last week, I suggested to our readers that they enter PlayoffBlitz’s playoff fantasy contest and the (playoff) Week 1 results are in.

Boy, second to last. I don’t have much to say in my defense other than that I wasn’t expecting Greg Freaking Jennings and Dwayne Freaking Bowe to combine for one Freaking catch for eight Freaking yards, or zero Freaking fantasy points.

I did pretty well at QB (Rodgers, 27 points) and RB (Rice, 17 points; Bush, 6 points — before inevitable injury), but WR really killed me. What’s worse is that Jennings now has a tasty matchup with ATL, but I can’t use him. I started him in the first week because PHI hasn’t been playing very good pass defense of late and I was afraid the Packers might get beat and I wouldn’t be able to get Jennings in my lineup. I’m also really excited about my last minute decision to swap out the Ravens (13 points) for the Saints (3 points). Thank you, New Orleans DT!

I guess it could be worse. I could have been one of the five teams that failed/forget to get a lineup in. Shame on you, guys. Shame on you. I can also take some solace that I beat Anthony Stalter (“Against the Spread”). Eat it, Anthony!

Looking ahead, the Packers seemingly have a nice passing matchup with the Falcons, while the Falcons have tough matchups all around. The Pats have been playing better pass defense of late, so it’s not necessarily a good idea to start any of the Jets, though the New England rush defense is still having some issues. Baltimore/Pittsburgh could be an ugly fantasy battle while Chicago/Seattle could have a few fantasy stars, at least on the Bears’ side of the ball.