Tuesday Afternoon Cornerback: Week 14

December 8th, 2009 | By boadurichard

Here are my quick cuts and jukes from the 14th week of football….

College

Oregon got a great win on Thursday night. It was great to see Lagarrette Blount play well. Jeremiah Masoli has done what he has done all year long and balled out leading his team to a come from behind victory.

Come on University of Houston you’re killing me here! Signs of a young team with potential is when they lose games to lesser competition which is exactly what happened this Saturday. The Cougars were a solid win away from making the BCS. Case Keenum shot himself in the foot and out of a Heisman Trophy visit with 3 interceptions. East Carolina won the Conference USA title over the Cougars.

Clearly the best game of the weekend was Cincy vs. Pitt, I don’t care what anyone has to say about the Big 12 Championship game. I was nervous when I woke up and saw that Pitt was up 31-10. I pride myself on my prophetic picks and Pitt had me looking bad. Then the Mardy Gilyard show happened, He took a kickoff back 99 yards to the house. He racked up 7 ko returns for 256 yards, that’s disgusting people! He also grabbed 5 catches for 118 yards and 1td. Also he grabbed the crucial 2 point conversion to tie the game up. Tony Pike is a lucky man because he played poor and was close to being pulled, but found a way to win it in the end throwing a perfect pass to Armon Binns for the game winning td. My heart goes out to Pittsburgh holder, Andrew Janocko, mishandled the extra point which eventually lead to the Cincy victory. The debate is still up for discussion but Dion Lewis vs. LaMichael James. Lewis ran the ball 47 times for 194 yards, OMG, WTF. He’s a freshman.
(this was so not a quick cut and juke. It was a burley John Riggins run, lol)

Like I said, get your licks in on USC now, because next year they’ll be back to normal. Does anyone not see why Pete Carroll wanted Mark Sanchez to come back for his senior year. Matt Barkley is good, but I’d rather have a 5th year senior QB who has been in the system (which is an NFL style system by the way) as opposed to having a freshman. Big ups to Mike Stoops and Arizona as well. He’s doing better than Bob, and I love Nick Foles hair. I find it hilarious that he was the #52 ranked QB coming out of high school in 2007 and only six of those QBs have a chance in hell of making it in the NFL. Don’t believe the hype, ever!

The ACC championship game was the runners bowl. You had GA Tech’s triple option offense and Josh Nesbitt and Jonathan Dwyer doing the damage for them vs. CJ Spiller getting it in for Clemson. Winner, GA Tech, Nesbitt and Dwyer combined for 46 carries for 213 yards and 3 tds. Spiller had 20 carries for 233 yards and 4tds(scratches head). Now that I look at it CJ won the battle but GA Tech and their rushing attack won the war.

SEC Championship, we finally saw Tim Tebow cry. I really don’t care about it, most of you all do. I think he is overhyped by the media, but that’s not his fault. He’s a great player who has one game left in his college career and that game is not for the national championship. I’d probably cry too. Bottom line, Florida doesn’t have their usual firepower and Alabama is just a better team.

My question is this, yes I know that Percy Harvin left for the NFL and Andre Debose was supposed to be his replacement but he was injured. Chris Rainey, Jeff Demps, Brandon James all three are electric fleet footed players. Brandon James covered for Percy last year in the SEC championship game, why couldn’t he have done so all season? Florida didn’t have any explosion this season and failed to replace Harvin. I’m not at practice everyday so I don’t know, but why wouldn’t you use Brandon James more?

The Big 12 Championship or the Ndumakong Suh show was a good one. Suh had 12 tackles, 7 for loss and 4.5 sacks….baller, point blank bottom line baby! He dominated the game and dictated what Texas could and could not do. Texas was destined for this game, from Colt McCoy’s tackle after his interception in the Red River Rivalry to his epic performance against Texas A&M. I’ll say this. Colt McCoy was PRESSURED and threw the ball out of bounds with one second left. If McCoy is pressured by guess who, Suh, he stays in the pocket and more than likely throws an incomplete pass and Texas loses the game. Has anyone else realized that?

Check out the 3:01 mark of this clip

NFL

It was great to see Michael Vick get two td’s, his first since 2006, against his former team.

Oh my goodness, did anyone see the Antonio Bryant catch.

I told you all Peyton would outlast Vince. But Vince played well. The Colts are just a better team, and Vince doesn’t need to be benched his 5 straight wins were not a fluke. I had to say that because the doubters are still lurking.

Do the Texans have any toes left? They continually shot themselves in the foot week in and week out.

The Chiefs suck and I love it. My Raiders beat the defending Super Bowl champions who do not look like themselves at all.

Speaking of not looking like themselves, the Patriots. I mean Randy is getting out jumped on jump balls and I’ve never seen that happen before. Tom is making bad decisions also. The defense, well….you get what you pay for. The Pats want to go ahead and be cheap on defense which is the main part of their problem and they are getting exactly what they are paying for. A pass rush from Richard Seymour would be really nice about now.

Remember that fate I spoke of with the Texas Longhorns? Yah, the New Orleans Saints have that same fate. Robert Meachem is from Tulsa, OK. I’m not from T-Town but I’m from Midwest City, OK, so we’ll claim em.

LaDanian Tomlinson passed the great Jim Brown for 8th place on the all-time rushing list.

It’s December and it’s the Dallas Cowboys? Why are you people surprised, gaah lee! Did anyone spot Aaron Ross of the Giants, dude looked fly with the blue spats.

The 49ers won, but I don’t understand why Alex Smith is throwing the ball 45 times and Frank Gore is running it only 9? Oh well, they won.

Brett Favre looks like he came back to Earth because he played like a 40 year old quarterback should. He also didn’t get help from his receivers who got locked up by the Cardinals secondary. My thoughts and prayers go out to E.J. Henderson.

Oh my goodness. last nights Monday night game was the ugliest thing in the world. I mean 23 penalties, oh my. The only think looking good was Tom Zbikowski’s spat job. It looked really nice and Charles Woodson’s did too.

Joe Flacco thought the his fling with the sophomore slump was just that. Naw Joe Money, she’s here for the rest of the season homie!

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

Wednesday Football Wonderings….

November 18th, 2009 | By boadurichard

Yo what’s good. I’m going to run down a list of things that are still on my mind two days after the last week of football was played. Don’t worry next article will be about upcoming games this weekend.

First things is this, please get off of Bill Belichick’s back. He made the call point blank, bottom line. This man has three Super Bowl rings and should have had a fourth. He’s made countless risks before that have worked out just fine. In reality, he got a really bad spot. The only two bad decisions he made was calling a timeout before deciding to go for it on 4th and 2 giving the Colts a chance to get prepared for the play. The second mistake was not blitzing Peyton Manning after they didn’t get the didn’t get the conversion. I’d rather him blitz Manning and get burned early for the TD so they’ll have time to score rather than later with virtually no time left on the clock.

Maurice Jones-Drew’s coach influenced decision to not score the touchdown at the end of the game was a bad decision. They were down. Please stop saying it was a smart decision like Brian Westbrook made a few weeks ago. It was not, the Eagles were winning that game, the Jaguars were not winning. It is too big of a risk. The only reason Belichick gets a pass because he’s won three out of four Super Bowls in one decade.

Bob Stoops to Notre Dame? I don’t see it happening. I really don’t. He’s damn near a legend in Oklahoma. Granted, he’s not being fully appreciated as he once was, but he’s been in this position before in 2005 when they went 8-4. He’ll bounce back, I mean hell, look at all the injuries he’s had to deal with this season.

Now, these Mike Shanahan to the Chicago Bears rumors sound legit. They signed Jay Cutler to way too much money and gave up too much to get him last Summer, so Cutler is not going anywhere. Someone will be punished for all these loses the Bears are suffering. If it’s not the GM then it’s going to be head coach, Lovie Smith. Shanahan makes sense. Cutler played his best football for Shanahan in Denver last season throwing for over 4,500 yards and 25 TDs.

Why does this college football season suck so much? I knew something was up when highly touted true freshman Andre DeBose wasn’t going to play this year for Florida because of a hamstring injury, that was my omen. There are no clear cut stars. Jahvid Best was on his way, but his offensive line stopped blocking for him. Colt McCoy’s thrown too many interceptions. Jevan Snead is not who we thought he was. Tim Tebow has no one to throw the ball too. Jimmy Clausen plays for a Notre Dame team that has no defense, and Sam Bradford was done the first game. Cincinnati is undefeated and Mardy Gilyard is playing his ass off, why is he not getting any love. Yes C.J. Spiller is playing on a mediocre Clemson team, but he is by far the best player in the country and he should get some Heisman love as well. If only TCU or Boise State had a star, or Cincinnati marketing Mardy Gilyard.

LaGarrette Blount was reinstated to Oregon last week. Although he didn’t play, it was nice for his coach Chip Kelly to reinstate Blount. Now my confusion is this, Lane Kiffin boots Michael Edwards and Nu’Keese Richardson off the team for their role in an alleged attempted robbery with a pellet gun. It is similar to the Maurice Clarrett situation a few years back. Kelly didn’t ban Blount from the program and kick him off the team, he rehabilitated him. I wonder how Clarrett would have turned out if he had been given the opportunity to be rehabilitated and not left virtually naked in Columbus by Ohio State. I’m not condoning Clarrett’s actions, but you wonder how he would have turned out to be honest. I wonder what will happen with Richardson and Edwards. Both are only true freshman. Someone in the country will pick these two kids up. Kiffin’s reasons were that it would be hard for him to go into homes on recruiting trips and tell parents that their sons would be safe at Tennessee when he has players on the team robbing people. It is a very true statement from Kiffin, but I wonder what the coach that signs these two kids will say when he visits potential recruits. Do these kids get any slack for it only being a pellet gun? I’m not saying give them any, I’m just wondering because I am not a lawyer. Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you think.

Last thing on my mind is the BCS rankings. Are they even necessary. BCS comes out in Week 7. I think we should push it back to Week 9, and start letting the AP and Coaches start voting at week 6. It usually takes about six weeks for a team’s true character to show. We can’t do away with the BCS anytime soon, so why not control the most important thing which is the rankings. Where a team starts in the preseason rankings is the most vital component of the BCS rankings if you ask me. Let’s be honest, say TCU didn’t start out #17 in the preseason polls, and they were not going to be ranked until week 6, I am positive that some voter would rank TCU better than Florida right now. Honestly, the BCS doesn’t screw teams, (please don’t say Texas got screwed by the BCS, Texas got screwed by its own conference three way division tie breaker rules) the voters and polls screw teams. So we might as well do away with the polls until mid-season. Sound good? Great. Thanks for listening.

That’s All I got,

Richard Boadu

Dez Bryant vs. LaGarrette Blount

October 29th, 2009 | By boadurichard

Pardon me while I go in right quick. So the NCAA will not lift Dez Bryant’s full year suspension because he lied to them? Okay cool. Yes, lying is wrong and you should be punished but come on. You are going to punish a kid for a full season when Blount punched another player, had to be held back from fans and caused a mockery of himself, his university and the game of college football.

It’s been said plenty of times, but the NCAA is nothing more than a form of modern day slavery. Yes, for black, whites, whatever race you are if you are a collegiate athlete you are being pimped by the system. Let it be known. I was a collegiate athlete and although it never happened to me, several times I’d hear friends wanting to major as an engineer, pre-law, pre-med etc. and their athletic counselors telling them that they should take easier majors instead. How in the world could a person live with themselves? Your job is to keep kids eligible not keep them eligible by any means necessary which will eventually hurt the student athlete in the long run.

I see the commercials on tv all the time sponsored by the NCAA “Most of us will go pro in something other than sports”. Great message, so if you really believe and stand behind that why deter a kid from majoring as an engineer, pre-med, pre-law etc? So they can be eligible and make you guys tons of money and if they so happen to major in something that’s not worth much become just that, fine with you guys, huh? They went pro in mediocrity! Yes!

So Bryant was investigated because of possibly receiving improper benefits from Deion Sanders and or his agent Eugene Parker. If the athletes got some type of compensation you might not have to investigate that. These kids bring in millions of dollars and yes a free education is worth a lot, but it’s not priceless when you have counselors urging you to major in bullshit majors. I need to clarify this, Bryant was in danger of violating his amateur athletic status correct? I know this is a rule, and this is a rant so I could be way off base with this one and if I am please call me out, but what is the big deal. The NCAA already allows agents to contact players and their families as long as benefits are not exchanged. So when Bryant’s case was found to be nothing more than a mentor relationship between himself and Sanders, why not reinstate him. Eugene Parker was not present at any of these meetings Bryant had with Sanders. Sanders has a relationship with Bryant’s position coach as well.

Someone please explain to me, how a kid who did nothing but lie out of fear be suspended for an entire season, but another player with anger management issues be able to attack another player and not be suspended for a full season. I just think the NCAA is upset they can’t prove anything went on at Sanders’ house. Rece Davis of ESPN said something great and that was that the NCAA is judge, jury, and executioner and that they have the latitude to punish something that the first two being judge and jury can’t prove. The severity of the punishment is more about intimidation than protecting the student athletes or the integrity of the game.

I see violence on one video and victim of a stupid system in the other.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer