Well I woke up and found that I haven't blogged in a little while so after a good weekend in Football (Mainly good because the Giants didn't lose, but for that matter they didn't win either. Bye week.) There were a lot of very good games this weekend that kept my interest otherwise. But today I want to tackle two things. One related directly to the game last night, and another to an ongoing saga in the NFL that I find hilarious. So while I stuff food down my throat and each lunch (multi-tasking) I will blog.....
Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler!?!?! To me this is a very funny situation. To those who weren't paying attention at the beginning of the season Jay Cutler was more or less a cry baby. Now I don't particularly care for the Broncos or the Bears (although the Giants play the Broncos in two weeks) but this was an example of someone who got what was coming to them.
As I was saying Cutler was basically crying about Denver and when they brought in new Head Coach Josh McDaniels. Now I don't know all the details, but Cutler didn't get along with McDaniels and Cutler more or less complained himself right out of Denver and into the eager hands of the Chicago Bears. And who did the bears have to give up? Kyle Orton. A young ok at best quarterback. There were some other details to the trade, but regardless at the time it seemed like a sweet deal for the Bears. Cutler was (and probably still is) a quick rising super star of the league with a good work ethic. But what got to me was how he went about leaving Denver. It was all done in a very public way almost like watching a child complain until he gets his way.
Fast forward to the current situation, Week 10. Right now the Chicago Bears are sitting at 4-5 and don't look quite like the team I am sure they thought they would be after acquiring Jay Cutler. Cutler has a QB rating of 76.0 at this point in the season. Not so good. He has thrown for 2353 yards with 14 Touchdowns and 17 Interceptions. Not quite what you would have in mind. Kyle Orton has lead the Denver Broncos to a 6-3 record with a passer rating of 91.1 while throwing for 2031 yards, 11 Touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. It would seem a tale of two quarterbacks?
Now granted there is a lot of football left, and I will point out that The Chicago Bears are beat up on both sides of the ball. (Especially Defensive) But at this point in the season it makes me smile to see how it is unfolding for Cutler. He most likely will go on to have a great NFL career (He is a super talented guy, so I am not disputing that), but just for now it brings him back down to a level where I think he needs to be to attain that greatness.
So with six weeks to go anything can happen. And yesterday Orton went down with an ankle injury (not sure how severe yet) but to this point it has just been a situation which makes me sit back and laugh a little bit. Personally I am routing for Denver to make the playoffs and for Chicago to miss out this year!
I went to bed very early last night and missed the end of another amazing Pats/Colts game! This always frustrates me because I always seem to miss these awesome games because of this thing called sleep. At a small group this morning one of the guys asked if I had stayed up for the game last night. Instantly I thought to myself, "darn it I missed another great game." And indeed my intuition served me well. It was a great game that came down to the wire and had some excellent controversy as well.
With 2:08 left in the game the Pats (up by 6) had a 4th down with 2 yards to go. Oh yea and it was from their own 28 Yard line! So what do the Pats do you might be asking yourself? Well of course they punted.........Wait what they didn't? No the play went live and Kevin Faulk came up inches short of a first down! Enter Peyton Manning (One of the best Quarterbacks in the Game) 4 plays later, touchdown Colts. The eventual game winner in fact.
So what does this mean. After listening to lots of opinions on the subject from people covering the game I wanted to state what I think about the way it all went down.
First off I agree with something I heard earlier on the way to the bank. If any number of other coaches had made this decision they more than likely would be looking for a new job. (This is where the Redskins fans start wishing that Jim Zorn would do the same thing and finally get fired! But since he isn't calling plays any more who cares)
But why would Belichick go for it on 4 and 2 from his own 28? Does he have that much confidence in his offense? Does he have that little defense in his defense. Does he do it just because he is Bill Belichick and he can? Amazingly most of his players came out and had Belichicks back. Star quarterback Tom Brady said "It's easy to second-guess, obviously. If we gain seven more inches, then it's a great call." His players still had his back despite this ludicrous decision. So what was going through his mind. I think I might have have some of the answers.
First,
"ESPN Stats & Information dug through the archives and found that entering Sunday's game, the Patriots had converted a fourth-and-2 or shorter 68 out of 89 times (76.4 percent) since 2001, Brady's first year as a starter."
76.4 percent? That's a pretty good average. There were a few tests in college that I didn't prepare for and I was happy with a 77 percent. It means 3 out of 4 times they are going to make it happen. Whether or not Belichick knew this exact number going into the play we might never know. But we do know that he is confident that his team can make the play and that they have made this play before! So that is the first reason he probably went for it.
Secondly,
I think he thought that the Colts would be a little thrown off by this odd play call, and that would give him an edge for catching them by surprise. Well he didn't catch them by surprise. The Colts were able to fend off the attack.
Thirdly,
"In Bill we trust" All of his players have publicly come out and said that he is the coach and that they trust his decisions. With this undying allegiance to their coach why wouldn't Belichick go for it. He knows that even if it didn't turn out the way he wanted it to, he still had the support of his players and ultimately that's what you want if your a coach.
Fourth,
I think Belichick honestly believed that even if they failed getting the first down, there would still be enough time left (even if the Colts scored) to rally his team for one last quick drive down the field. This was of course not the case. It is a bold type of thinking but in the end it didn't pay off this time. But it could have been an influence in his mind.
Fifth
It's because he is Belichick.
"Belichick has built up a lot of faith equity over the years. He runs one of the NFL's dominant franchises, the team of the decade. He has three Super Bowl rings and four AFC championships."
With that resume you know he has the utmost confidence that even if he fails. His job will still be there for him, and he still has a pretty great team at the end of the day.
But still is this a decision that any of us would have made? I would probably go for it on 4th and 2......If I was playing in a pick up flag football game that was happening in my backyard. I think it was a poor decision that he made, but I don't condemn him for it like some people have in the press today.
I think he just made the decision that he thought would win the ball game for his team!
-C-
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