Monday Morning Cornerback: Week 19

January 11th, 2010 | By boadurichard

Here are my quick cuts and jukes from the past week’s football

College

Fiesta! Fiesta!

I called Boise State heartless earlier this year for not making sure Lagerrette Blount got knocked out after striking one of their teammates. They rolled through a weak WAC conference. I was certain TCU was going to give them the business, but I was wrong because Boise State came to play and TCU was the team that backed down. The surprise of the evening was Boise State’s defense, which shut the prolific TCU offense down. Sidenote, Andy Dalton, TCU QB, has no arm strength at all. Did you see the ducks he was throwing on the deep out routes? Geesh. Either way, both teams were evenly matched and Boise State just fought harder point blank. Congrats Broncos, I hope you all have accepted my apology.

Uhh…the BORE – ange Bowl

Umm…Iowa beasted Georgia Tech. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Is the Big Ten back? That’s 4-3 in bowl games this year with two BCS wins.

Iowa won the game, but what is up with fake field goal call my Kirk Ferentz? Where are all these coaches getting these balls of steel from. Bill Belichick opened the flood gates for weird ass calls when he pulled that shit in Indianapolis earlier this season. Jim Zorn’s wild ass call on Monday Night Football, Jim Caldwell, and most recently Kirk Ferentz’s crazy call have been many of odd decisions by coaches this season. Pretty soon we won’t have anymore punters and kickers the way these daredevils play.

GMAC = BCS?

LOL, last week I wrote about the Central Michigan vs. Troy game last weekend. I was given the business by several CMU fans. I refuse to make the same mistake again. CMU was ranked #25 and I said they were unranked. Neither team has any control over when the bowl game is played. I still think it’s stupid to have this game this late in the bowl season. The game wasn’t a good game, it was a good half. You guys can shoot me if you want to, but from beginning to end there were better bowl games this year. This game had the best half of the bowl season hands down. Thank you for your comments last week as well, you guys really made me feel hated like Colin Cowherd, who I look up too, so I was on my high horse thanks to you guys.

National Championship Game

Well damn football gods, did you really have to take Colt McCoy out of the game five plays in? What did he do to you guys? Either way the whole entire landscape of the game changed once he went out. You can’t argue that at all. I picked Texas to win, and if he stays in I think they do, but shoulda, coulda, woulda you know. Backup Texas QB, Garrett Gilbert, played well for the most part. He was deer in headlights the first couple of series, but once he realized Jordan Shipley was on the field, it was all good. McCoy got all the love this year, but imagine if he didn’t have Shipley to throw the ball to? I think Shipley is the Longhorn MVP this year, he certainly was for this game. The key plays in the game are Malcolm Williams dropping that touchdown pass which would have made it a 17 – 13 ball game. The next key play was the shovel pass pick six. If either of those two plays are in Texas’ favor the game is 17-13 at halftime with Texas getting the ball to start the second half.

I have no clue where Bama went in the 3rd qtr. I’m still looking for them right now. I won’t mention the Bama QB’s name, because he sucks that bad. Give some love to the Bama O-line, when you throw the ball 11 times, and win a national championship game, that means your running game cannot be touched. Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson got it in! Congrats to Bama, but deep down, you can’t feel totally good about this victory, because Texas didn’t have their best player. Granted you all knocked him out of the game on a clean hit, and injuries are apart of the game. But don’t you want to beat the Texas Longhorns? And all season long everyone and their unborn babies haven’t been able mention the Texas Longhorns without saying Colt McCoy.

NFL

The wildcard weekend was the rematch weekend. Three of the four games played were rematches, which I found pretty cool. Two out of the three of the teams that won last weekend, won this weekend.

Well a Jet is faster than a Bengal

The Jets flat out kicked the Bengals’ ass. Rex Ryan’s defense was “all the way turnt up”. Darrelle Revis continued his case for defensive player of the year (even though I don’t think postseason play should count, with his recent performance it’ll be hard to keep it out of the voters’ minds.) Mark Sanchez played virtually mistake free and his running game allowed him to not be in situations where he’d have to win the entire game.

Murder in Jerry Land

Speaking of flat out ass kickings. We’ll it wasn’t an ass kicking, someone died in Dallas. Not someone, but something or somethings. The Eagles died. Yep, they were put to death in Jerry Land. Is it Jerry Land or Jerry’s World? Has there been a consensus on what we’re going to call it yet? Either way outside of a long td strike from Mike Vick, the Eagles were extinct. The Eagles’ power was their offense and Dallas’ defense shut that down with ease. Tony Romo was flawless and Miles Austin showed out as always. Things were going so well in Dallas that Roy Williams showed up to the party as well and boy did Mr. Odessa cut a rug in Jerry Land/World. The Chargers are not the hottest team in football, it is the Cowboys.

Quote the Raven, “i dislike Patriots”

Umm…I’ve said this all year when it comes to the Patriots. “You Get What You Pay For” in several key areas of their ball club, the Pats went cheap and they got cheap performance. Most specifically they went cheap on defense, but in their defense’s defense when the offense is turning the ball over in their own territory several times it’s hard to win. The Ravens defense played like they should have been playing all year long. We can shoulda woulda coulda all day long in terms of Wes Welker being able to play but he wasn’t thus the Pats were in effective all game long with the Ravens rolling coverage to Randy Moss and Ben Watson dropping passes. On the other note their dynasty is not over, please stop with the nonsense. The Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year, are they over?

Welcome to the conversation…We’re talking about nominations for the best games in history.

I was pissed all weekend long. I just wanted to watch some good football. All three previous playoff games were blowouts. Thank you Green Bay and Arizona for making this game interesting. The highest scoring game in NFL history interesting. Don’t blame Aaron Rodgers Packers fans, he played a great game and brought the team back. It was just a fluke play to be honest.

The defense made enough stops to get the team back even as well. It’s like guarding Lebron James, he’s going to get his points. I mean once both offenses got into their grooves, the 2000 Ravens or ‘85 Bears couldn’t have stopped either team. It is odd that the game ended on a defensive play, and I know for certain Neil Rackers is the happiest person in the state of Arizona right now. Kurt Warner threw four incompletions and five touchdown passes. I just thought I’d throw that fact out there.

Random ish….

So, Tommy Tuberville is the new man at Texas Tech. You don’t say. I hope you have something to say because I don’t. It feels like they went after the biggest name they could find at the time. Mike Leach’s system is totally different from what Tuberville is going to bring in. I wouldn’t say Tuberville has to win fast, because the administration has been dying to get rid of Leach so they’ll give Tuberville his due time to get his own players in Lubbock. The fans; however, will not give Tuberville his due time because they never wanted Leach gone in the first place. We’ll see how it plays out though.

Pete Carroll! Don’t do it. Seattle is on the fast track to becoming NFL purgatory between Cleveland and Oakland(Detroit is like Hell in Pluto). Too late. I feel like they are trapping you Pete, they are setting you up for failure. Who is they? I don’t know it sounds good. Either way, the defense is wretched in Seattle. I don’t know what they have done with Matt Hasslebeck. Mike Holmgren left the team better than he found it. Jim Mora was unfairly ousted too early. I mean they are giving Pete the money to go buy his own groceries to cook the dinner, per Bill Parcells. We’ll see if he manages his money well and buys good healthy organic foods or he wastes in on junk food. We’ll also see if he knows how to cook, because too much or too little salt and various spices on meals can completely ruin them. On a positive note, the defense is good and they play in a mediocre conference. The only way to go is up, right?

Cool Vids

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

Respect My Recant

January 5th, 2010 | By boadurichard

Okay, well my foot is in my mouth, and I have no problem taking it out of my mouth in front of the world or the several thousand fans that visit my website. Basically, I called Boise State a heartless team. I called them heartless, because I felt the team should have done something to Lagarrette Blount when he clocked their teammate. I mean they simply watched Blount swing, connect, back up, dare someone else to do something and he simply walked off the field scott free. My opinion hasn’t changed, I still think they should have done something, but that’s neither here nor there.

The matter at hand is this, to the 2009-2010 Boise State Bronco football team, I apologize for calling you heartless. You’ve always had my respect regardless of my remarks, but you gained even more of it with your play last night. You essentially clobbered a TCU team that everyone in America outside of Idaho expected to win. 17-10 doesn’t exactly sound like a clobbering, but given TCU’s athleticism, you all clobbered them. I still feel like TCU was the more athletic team, but Boise State hit them in the mouth, TCU tried to fight back, and Boise State just had more heart. You saw especially when the TCU offense and Boise State defense was on the field.

TCU’s offensive players were out of sink all game long. Their receivers were shook and dropping passes. Their offensive line was dominated and barely fought back. Andy Dalton rarely had anytime to throw. When he did have time to throw, his clear lack of arm strength showed. I had no clue how weak his arm was, and realized why people are so enamored with arm strength. If you can’t throw the deep out in the pros you are in trouble. Dalton can’t even throw the deep out at the college level. When Dalton was able to get the ball to this receivers they were covered and balls were broken up as well as the receiver’s morale.

The TCU defense didn’t back down, and virtually kept the prolific Boise State offense without a touchdown until the 4th quarter when Boise pulled another trick play in a BCS game. It was beautifully ran fake punt pass over the middle to the tight end. The momentum swing after that play killed the TCU defense for a brief moment and Boise got the go ahead score.

Bottom line, we all knew the TCU defense was going to come to play and they did. It was the much over hyped and newly invented TCU offense that everyone was praising. It seemed as if TCU wanted to out throw Boise State. Why would you want to out throw Boise State? You clearly have one of the best defenses in the nation and you throw the ball 44 times and run it only 8? I refuse to listen to “TCU couldn’t run the ball”. Running the ball is a “thing of will” from all people involved coaches included. Even if you are only getting two and three yards a clip, stick to the running game because your bigger and more athletic team will prevail. I feel like TCU panicked when Boise State’s defense fought back. Scratch that, not fought back, just bullied them took their lunch money and wasn’t given it back even if the principal told them too.

Boise State’s showed a lot of heart last night. More than TCU and more than I ever thought they had. I was wrong bottom line.

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