Tag: Anthony Stalter (Page 29 of 133)

      2011 NFL Divisional Round Playoff Predictions

      January 14, 2011 /
      e second half of their NFL Wildcard game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 09 January 2011. EPA/LARRY W. SMITH fotoglif882326

      I started off the NFL playoffs by hitting 3 of 4 last week in the Wildcard Round. I nailed the Seahawks, Jets and Packers, but I talked myself out of the Ravens earlier in the week. If the regular season is any indication, then I have a 1-3 weekend coming up…

      The sides this weekend are way too hard to predict. I honestly would be guessing at whom to take with the spread, which is why I focused on the totals in the Divisional Round. But for those that are interested, I did offer a glimpse as to which team I would lean towards.

      Enjoy and as always, Merry NFL Playoffs.

      Ravens @ Steelers, 4:30PM ET, Saturday
      Trying to decide between these two teams is like asking a parent to pick which identical twin he or she wants to keep and which one it wants to give away. (Kind of morbid I know, but it’s all I could think of on a Friday afternoon when my mind is on this weekend’s games. So back off.) Earlier this week, I loved the under in this matchup because you have to figure that the defenses and kickers will be busy. But then I saw a couple of trends that made my jaw drop. The over is 9-1 in the Steelers’ last 10 home playoff games and 5-1-1 in the last seven meetings between these two teams in Pittsburgh. The total has also gone over in 18 of Pittsburgh’s last 21 games in January. This matchup has 13-10 written all over it but with those stats, how could you not take a chance on the over with it sitting at 37? If I had to choose a side, I would go with the Ravens +3.5. But that’s only because I think this is will be a field goal game either way and therefore the hook would come in handy.
      THE PICK: OVER 37

      Packers @ Falcons, 8:00PM ET, Saturday
      This is the best matchup of the weekend in my opinion because it might as well be a conference championship game. That’s how good both of these teams are and the only reason the Packers are a No. 6 seed is because they had to overcome injures all season. While everyone focuses on Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan, I think the key to this game will be the two defenses. The Packers haven’t given up more than 17 points in three weeks and the Falcons haven’t given up more than 18 points in four weeks. Both defenses are playing at a high level right now and given what’s at stake, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a relatively low-scoring game. The Falcons have to get Michael Turner going in order to slow the tempo of the game down and keep Rodgers on the sidelines. They can’t get into a shootout and considering neither of these teams turns the ball over much, I like the under.
      THE PICK: UNDER 44

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      External Sports, NFL

      Newton to enter NFL draft – is he a first rounder?

      January 14, 2011 /
      Auburn Tigers quarterback Cam Newton enjoys his teams 22-19 victory over the Oregon Ducks in the NCAA BCS National Championship college football game in Glendale, Arizona, January 10, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      Let the months of speculation begin.

      Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has announced that he will forego his senior season and enter the 2011 NFL Draft. The Heisman Trophy winner finished his junior season with 2,854 passing yards, a 66.1 percent completion rate and 30 passing touchdowns to go with 1,473 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

      Oh, and he also led the Tigers to a national championship victory over Oregon.

      Now comes the fun and nauseating part: Where will he fall in the draft? Is he a clear-cut first round pick? Is he a top 10 pick? Is he even projected to be a quarterback at the next level?

      Most people would undoubtedly answer “yes” to that last question, although some pundits believe Newton will have to make the transition to tight end in the NFL. He certainly has the arm strength and size to be a great quarterback, but can he succeed in a pro-style offense? Can he be a leader? Can he read a defense? Does he have the accuracy to make all of the throws in a NFL offense? How is his football IQ?

      It only took one man to believe that Tim Tebow was capable of developing into a starting quarterback for a team to select him in the first round. Granted, that man (Josh McDaniels) is now searching for work, but that’s more because he managed to trade away his two best offensive players (Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall) in two years and gave away Peyton Hillis for a third-string quarterback in Brady Quinn. Only some people criticize him for trading away draft picks in order to select Tebow…

      Getting back to Newton, he’s going to wow scouts with his athleticism in pre-draft workouts but he’ll have to convince a team that he has the intelligence and work ethic needed to become a quarterback in the NFL. Because if he can’t, then he’s going to fall in the draft and he may be forced to switch positions in order to make it at the next level.

      In other Auburn-related news, defensive tackle Nick Fairley is expected to announce Friday that he too is foregoing his senior year and entering the draft. If that’s the case, there’s no question that he’s a top 5 pick.

      College Football, External Sports, NFL, NFL Draft

      Five Questions: Jets vs. Patriots

      January 14, 2011 /
      New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) calls a play in the huddle in the first quarter against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on December 6, 2010. The Patriots defeated the Jets 45-3. UPI/Matthew Healey

      Matchup: Jets (11-5) @ Patriots (14-2)
      Kickoff: 4:30PM ET, Sunday

      1. Can the combination of Sanchez and Schottenheimer top Belichick?
      Earlier this week, Jets’ coach Rex Ryan essentially told the media that this game will come down to whether or not he can raise his level of coaching to match that of Bill Belichick. I understand what he was saying, but I disagree with him. This game won’t come down to Ryan – it’ll come down to whether or not Brian Schottenheimer can raise his game. While Ryan certainly has his hands full trying to figure out a way to slow the Patriots’ offense, Schottenheimer must design a game plan that will top Belichick’s defense. Outside of a couple of throws, Mark Sanchez did not play well last weekend in Indianapolis. It was the Jets’ running game and defense that propelled them to victory. So first off, can Sanchez play better? If he can, will his offensive coordinator put together an intelligent game plan so that he can exploit the very few weaknesses that the Patriots have?

      2. Will the Pats overlook the Jets?
      There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Patriots are the better football team in this matchup. They have a tremendous coaching staff, they’re always prepared and they have the best quarterback in the league in Tom Brady. But in Week 9, the Pats were beaten by the Browns because they started reading their own press clippings. They did it again in Week 15 after rattling off five in a row and were set to face an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team at home. Matt Flynn nearly beat them that night, as New England’s defense looked flummoxed in a narrow 31-27 victory. With all the trash talk the Jets have been doing this week, it’s highly unlikely that the Patriots will overlook their most hated rivals. But they also beat this team 45-3 just over a month ago and it’s human nature to think that things will play out the same way. Belichick needs to remind his team that the Jets have already beaten them once this season and they’re not going to be caught unprepared like in the last meeting.

      3. Can the Jets get their running game going again?
      The Jets beat the Colts last week because they were able to run the football in the second half and leave Peyton Manning on the sidelines. They have to do that again if they’re going to pull off another upset. It’s a pipedream to think Sanchez will out-duel Brady, so the Jets need their defense and running game to be as good, if not better than they were against the Colts. A couple of costly turnovers by Sanchez hurt the Jets in their 45-3 loss to the Patriots in December. He must protect the football so the Jets don’t fall behind early and are forced to throw in order to get back into the game. New England has given up 108.0 yards per game this year and an average of 104.0 YPG over the past three weeks. LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene won’t be able to run all over the Pats this weekend, but they might be able to control the tempo again like last Saturday.

      4. How will Woody’s injury affect the Jets?
      Damien Woody was arguably the Jets’ best run-blocker, so losing him for the season could be catastrophic. New York needs to be able to run the ball on Sunday if it’s going to pull off an upset and without Woody that could be difficult. Plus, you have to figure that Belichick will figure out a way to exploit the injury and cause some havoc for Sanchez. There’s no other way to put it: Wayne Hunter (Woody’s replacement) must step up this weekend.

      5. Can the Pats stop Keller again?
      I the Jets’ 28-14 victory over the Patriots in Week 2, Dustin Keller caught seven passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns. In the teams’ second meeting, he caught just three passes for 27 yards and was only targeted four times. You can probably bet that Sanchez will look his tight end’s way more this weekend in effort to spread the ball around and keep New England’s defense guessing. Keller has long been a hidden weapon in the Jets’ passing game and he’s killed teams over the middle this season. New England can’t fall asleep on this guy because he can hurt defenses.

      External Sports, NFL

      Broncos go with safe choice, hire John Fox

      January 13, 2011 /
      Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox watches as his team loses to the New Orleans Saints 34-3 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 7, 2010. UPI/Nell Redmond .

      While Rick Dennison was initially favored to land the gig, the Broncos were swept away by John Fox’s interview on Wednesday and have decided to make him their 14th head coach in team history.

      This hire makes sense on many levels. The Broncos finished dead last in yards allowed this season and Fox is a defensive-minded coach. After the Josh McDaniels debacle, they didn’t want to take another risk and you couldn’t get less risky than John Fox. He was the Panthers’ head coach since 2002 and during that span, Carolina finished with fewer than seven wins only once (which was this season, when they went 2-14).

      But could the Broncos have gotten more blasé with this hire? Fox has already led a team to the Super Bowl and it certainly wasn’t his fault that the front office left him with practically zero talent to work with last season. But his teams were always the models of inconsistency under his guidance, making the playoffs one year only to finish 7-9 or 8-8 the next. He also stuck with Jake Delhomme as his starter for way too long, even though a blind puppet could see that Delhomme was done years ago.

      He also isn’t a very good schemer. Giant fans loved him when he was the defensive coordinator in New York before he was hired in Carolina, but the Panthers always seemed to have secondary issues over the years. While pundits love to say how he “always gets the most out of his players,” I’ve never heard anyone wax poetically about one of Fox’s game plans.

      What I’ve written doesn’t make Fox a bad coach obviously, but again – he’s the epitome of “meh.” It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Tim Tebow now and if the Broncos plan on going into next season with him as their starter. Fox has had zero success and limited experience developing young quarterbacks, so again, I question the Broncos’ choice here.

      That said, maybe he was the right choice for the Broncos at this particular time. And regardless of my personal feelings about him, the majority of people seem to like him.

      Hey, he can’t be any worse than McDaniels was, right?

      External Sports, NFL

      Shurmur not a flashy hire for Browns, but he’s a fit for Holmgren

      January 13, 2011 /

      Not many football fans are familiar with former Rams’ offensive coordinator and new Browns’ head coach Pat Shurmur, but Mike Holmgren is well aware of what the 45-year-old from Michigan brings to the table.

      Shurmur was considered the favorite to win Cleveland’s head coaching job since Eric Mangini was fired last week. He runs the West Coast offense that Holmgren will likely implement in 2011 and he’s presided over the development of young quarterbacks like Sam Bradford and Kevin Kolb. Being able to work and develop young signal callers was a trait that Holmgren was looking for in his next head coach because of Colt McCoy.

      While he’s never been a head coach at any level, Shurmur has plenty of experience as an NFL assistant. He was the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach from 1998-2008 and was the Rams’ O-coordinator the past two seasons. Again, his ability to tutor McCoy in the offensive scheme that Holmgren wants to implement was the main reason why Shurmur was hired. In the end, he may not wind up being successful but at least he’s the guy that Holmgren handpicked (unlike Mangini). And at this point, Browns fans have no reason to not trust Holmgren’s decision-making.

      At the very least, things are starting to take shape in Cleveland. Holmgren has built winners in his two previous NFL stops (Green Bay and Seattle) and given enough time, he could do the same in Cleveland. This will be his second offseason “buying the groceries” if you will, and now he can really focus on bringing in the personnel to fit the WCO. Assuming McCoy showed him enough this season to be counted on as the full-time starter, Holmgren now has his quarterback and head coach in place.

      As football fans know, teams can’t be successful unless they have those two pieces in place, so Holmgren is off to a fine start.

      External Sports, NFL

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