December 10, 2007

Sorry for the lack of new posts. Been busy with some crap called work and other assorted projects.

We'll get over our self-imposed writer's strike soon. But for today, just another football rant:

It surprises me how football coaches at the highest level make calls that I wouldn't expect to see at the rookie level when playing Madden.
The New York Jets were trailing 17-6 when they scored a TD to make it 17-12. They decided to go for the two point conversion to cut the lead to a field goal. They fail.
Down 5 with 3 minutes and all 3 timeouts, they onside kick and recover. From a football standpoint, I thought this was a great move. They drive down and eventually face a 4th and 10 at the CLE 20 with 1:48 remaining. Then they kick a field goal to make the score 17-15! All that work recovering the onside kick, driving down the field, and while they put points on the board, they were still losing. And more importantly, because I had Cleveland -3.5 on a few tickets, I was losing. I couldn't believe the Jets didn't go for it on 4th down to get in the end zone.

But here's what got me really mad. Still holding all three timeouts, the Jets attempted another onside kick! If Mangini was setting his team up to win by kicking another field goal, why did he not kick off deep, trust his defense, use his timeouts, and get the ball back in position to drive for the potential winning field goal? I read somewhere an NFL team has about about a 23% chance of recovering an onside kick. The Jets were already fortunate enough to recover one on to start the previous drive and were hoping for another one? Thankfully, Jamal Lewis was able to break about 7 tackles and get the ball in the end zone on the Browns possession to make the score 24-15 and put me in the win column. (The Jets got the ball back with about a minute, so they drive down the field for another field goal, which was followed up by another failed onside kick attempt, making the final score 24-18.)

I was all ready to write 'Cleveland Browns' on the Blacklist, but for his poor coaching decisions which cost his team, and almost cost me, I have put Eric Mangini and the Jets on the Blacklist. I'm hoping the Patriots run up 70 on them.

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