Week 5 Thoughts

The Minnesota Vikings were a little more active on Sunday than most teams on their bye. They found themselves a quarterback. They signed former Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter Josh Freeman. I saw mention that the Vikings tried to sign him to a two-year contract but Freeman only wanted to sign for the remainder of this season. He'll be a free agent in March. Finding a starting caliber quarterback available during the season is a pretty unique opportunity. The Vikings clearly decided to take advantage. Christian Ponder is currently listed as the starter but he's recovering from a fractured rib. Backup Matt Cassel started in place of Ponder a week ago. Now, Freeman is in the mix. It should take a few weeks before he's familiar with his new offense. Hopefully, competition brings the best out of someone. Despite two years more experience in the league, Freeman is only a few months older than Ponder at 25. This signing doesn't close to the door Christian Ponder. It only means that he has to work his ass off to keep his job. I really like that the Vikings decision makers decided to force this added competition at the quarterback position. The Vikings offense should be explosive. Greg Jennings is one of the best route runners and move-the-chain receivers in the league. Jerome Simpson has the speed and athletic ability to be a down the field threat. Rookie Cordarrelle Patterson could be a superstar. Tight end Kyle Rudolph has the size and hands to create mismatches across the field. Then there is the MVP, Adrian Peterson in the backfield. The Vikings are really only missing consistent quarterback play. They've been missing it for a while. I really liked Freeman in the 2009 NFL Draft. If he'd made it the Vikings pick at #22, I would have been ecstatic if he was the choice. The Buccaneers grabbed him at #17. He's had some nice moments in Tampa Bay. This season, however, has been a disaster. Hopefully, this change will do him some good. Signing Josh Freeman was a great move. If it brings the best out of Christian Ponder, great. If Freeman shows the skills that he's shown at times with Tampa Bay, great. If Cassel beats out both, great. No matter how it plays out the Vikings should be better at the most important position.

As for the games yesterday, I was away from my football headquarters. With the Vikings on bye, I had plans away from football but football was still part of my day. I had to be away but I couldn't stay away from football completlely. I had the chance to experience Sunday football the Red Zone way. I know that many fans love this hyperactive football viewing. I can understand that and I respect that. I've never chosen to view it because I knew that I wouldn't like it. It's not the way that I enjoy watching a football game. I love watching a football game. The entire game. I'm not interested in watching pieces of a bunch of games. Still, it was great to finally experience the Red Zone. If nothing else, it confirmed how I felt about this fancy new viewing. Of the morning games, I was most interested in the Seahawks-Colts game. Through Red Zone viewing, it didn't seem like the Colts ever had the ball. I'd like to have seen that. Even if it didn't result in a score. That looked like a great game. It would have been nice to see it. The Red Zone is a hit with a lot of people. Everyone that I hear speak of it speaks of it fondly. It's just not for me.

The Seahawks really need to figure out how to play on the road like the play at home. Something is missing. They lose something when they leave Seattle. They got a gift in Houston last week. They got no such gifts in Indianapolis. If they can't win on the road, they won't get home field advantage in the playoffs.

What is up with the New York Giants? They are too talented to be so bad. At least, I thought that they were talented.

The Denver Broncos-Dallas Cowboys game was a gas. Peyton Manning and Tony Romo put on a passing clinic. I saw mention in the fourth quarter that the two quarterbacks had combined for 11 incompletions. Incredible. I thought that the Cowboys had the game. If nothing else, the Broncos look merely great. They looked like they could be beaten. Except for a rocky first half in game one against the Ravens, the Broncos have looked unbeatable so far. The Cowboys got to them.

The Miami Dolphins have come back to earth.

Football Sundays are always kinda funky when the Vikings are away. I never quite know what to do. I'm glad that I finally had the opportunity to experience the Red Zone way. Despite my opinions, I can understand why many like it.

Josh Freeman....Pretty interesting....

Game Day Thoughts

The Sonny Dykes era at Cal has gotten off to a rough start. 1-4 after the Bears 44-22 loss to Washington St. Starting with Northwestern, Ohio St., and Oregon in their first four was tough. I thought that playing the Cougars at home would be a better than decent shot to get win #2. It didn't work out that way. It didn't help that two of Cal's early drives ended inside the 10-yard line with fumbles. After the turnover fiasco in Oregon last week, one would think that ball security would be a priority. Instead, Cal duplicated their five turnover performance of a week ago. Cal can have a truly potent offense but they're not good enough, as a team, to repeatedly offer up gifts to their opponents.

Cal true freshman quarterback Jared Goff had his first 500-yard game. In five games, he has, I believe, four of the top-5 passing yardage games in Cal history. Amazing. It's too bad that touchdowns aren't always coming with those terrific yards. Goff has a serious arm and serious passing talent. It's not all Dykes' pass-happy offense that's generating these numbers. Well, a lot of it is, but Goff is for real. 

Not only is Goff for real, but Cal has some real nice talent at receiver. Chris was ridiculous yesterday. 14 catches for 231 yards and a touchdown, an 89-yard touchdown. Harper, Bryce Treggs, Darius Powe,  are Richard Rodgers are all impact pass catchers.

It doesn't get easier for Cal. UCLA is up next.

Speaking of talented quarterbacks, Florida St.'s Jameis Winston was out-a-sight yesterday. I had been hearing a lot of great stuff about this redshirt freshman but I hadn't seen him play. #8 Florida St. was hosting a tough #25 Maryland team. The Seminoles made them look more like Georgia St. 63-0. It didn't help that Maryland quarterback quarterback C.J. Brown was knocked out of the game on an illegal hit in the first half. I was stunned when a penalty wasn't called on this play. It wasn't like it happened in a crowd. It was out in the open and easily seen. This was the sort of hit that has brought about all of the recent safety measures in the college game and in the pros. Maryland was still getting spanked at the time but it really spiraled out of control after that. It doesn't take anything away from what Winston did. He was awesome. 5 touchdowns, 393 yards. The numbers are super but his poise and throws were even better. I have yeat to see a full game from Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater but Jameis Winston's performance yesterday was maybe the best that I've seen from a college quarterback in recent years. 

ESPN's Game Day show had an excellent piece on the relationalship between Washington quarterback Keith Price and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. The young professional thrower reached out to the young amateur thrower upon being drafted by the Seahawks. It's a cool relationship and I appreciate ESPN bringing to us. Wilson is a tremendous football player and a tremendous person off of the field. I just wish that he wasn't playing for the Seahawks. It's a real shame. 

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that the didn't consider signing Peyton Manning because he already had Tony Romo. I really have nothing to say about that.

It was great to see the Josh Freeman soap opera end in Tampa Bay. It was only a couple of years ago that Freeman's future as an NFL quarterback was white hot. He was drafted after Matt Ryan and Mark Sanchez but was playing the best of the three first round selections. Now, he's looking for a new team. He's only 25. He still has a future in the NFL. 

Chip Kelly is sure quick to say how fantastic his coaching deeds and "innovations" are. He's the only one saying anything positive about his work in professional football, so far. 

Even with the Minnesota Vikings on bye there are some excellent games today.

New England at Cincinnati

Detroit at Green Bay

New Orleans at Chicago

Kansas City at Tennessee-this game drops a bit with Jake Locker out

Denver at Dallas

Houston at San Francisco

my favorite:

Seattle at Indianapolis

That's some good stuff. 

Hack!

Some clown was having some fun with the Houston Texans yesterday. The Twitter account @TexansVoice belonging to Marc Vandermeer, the Texans director of broadcasting, was hacked at about 8:10 pm with the message, "Texans have traded Matt Schaub to Cleveland Browns for WR Josh Gordon and a 3rd round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft." It doesn't take long for something like this to spread, everywhere. I discovered the news on a Minnesota Vikings message board. The source checked out so it seemed up to snuff. The trade made absolutely no sense to me. The Texans would be out of their minds to do this trade. The hacking clown was obviously preying on the anger that many Texans fans were likely feeling toward Schaub. The quarterback had basically gifted last week's game to the Seattle Seahawks when he lobbed a pass in the flat to cornerback Richard Sherman instead of a player from his own team. It was a terrible decision. There's never a good time for a terrible decision but Schaub found the worst time to make a terrible decision. This terrible decision was apparently enough for some clown to wrongly tell the world that the Texans had made an even worse decision. The Browns new need for a quarterback as well as their apparent willingness to trade young, talented football players was apparently enough to fool some people. I'm not sure why anyone would, for a second, think that the Texans would give up on Schaub because of his terrible decision. Even NFL insiders Albert Breer and Ian Rapoport were chasing this fake story. Fortunately, the Houton Chronicle's John McClain was on top of it all. He was quick to set things right. The "real" Marc Vandermeer was also quick to say that his Twitter account was hacked. About 15 minutes after the "funny" tweet went public, @TexansVoice tweeted, "I've been hacked. No trade. Sorry for the craziness."

I just don't get these clowns that use their terrific computer skills to go so far as to hack someone's Twitter and then not be clever in their use of that account. Why would anyone go through so much and come up with a trade that is so stupid. If you're going to be stupid at least go big. Trade Schaub to Cleveland for the Joes. Haden AND Thomas.

Underrated Football Players

I'm always drawn to the football players that don't get the recognition that they deserve. I was thinking about this when I saw Dallas Cowboys middle linebacker Sean Lee return a tipped pass for a touchdown. Lee has been a terrific football player for a couple of years now. Yet, I rarely hear his name mentioned. Here's a player from each team that I think is deserving of more attention:

Minnesota Vikings: DE Everson Griffen
Chicago Bears: DT Henry Melton
Green Bay Packers: LB Brad Jones
Detroit Lions: S Glover Quin

New Orleans Saints: DE Cameron Jordan
Atlanta Falcons: S Thomas DeCoud
Carolina Panthers: LB Thomas Davis
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: LB Mason Foster

Dallas Cowboys: Sean Lee
Washington Redskins: NT Barry Cofield
Philadelphia Eagles: LB Mychal Kendricks
New York Giants: DT Linval Joseph

San Francisco 49ers: G Mike Iupati
Seattle Seahawks: DT Brandon Mebane
Arizona Cardinals: DE Calais Campbell
St. Louis Rams: LB James Laurinaitis

Pittsburgh Steelers: CB Ike Taylor
Cincinnati Bengals: CB Leon Hall
Cleveland Browns: C Alex Mack
Baltimore Ravens: CB Lardarius Webb

Indianapolis Colts: CB Greg Toler
Houston Texans: CB Jonathan Joseph
Tennessee Titans: CB Alterraun Verner
Jacksonville Jaguars: G Uche Nwaneri

New England Patriots: S Steve Gregory
New York Jets: DE Muhammad Wilkerson
Buffalo Bills: S Jairus Byrd
Miami Dolphins: TE Charles Clay

Denver Broncos: LB Wesley Woodyard
San Diego Chargers: DE Corey Liuget
Oakland Raiders: DE Lamarr Houston
Kansas City Chiefs: NT Dontari Poe

Throwback Thursday: Lucky League

Watching A Football Life; Steve Sabol on NFL Network the other night confirmed again how truly lucky the National Football League has been. From the league's creation in 1920 up to the present the right people have always been in place. Men with the right vision for the league and the energy and drive to reach that vision. Almost to a fault, the future and reputation of the league was the priority of their lives.

It certainly helped the National Football League that for the first 63 years George Halas was always there. Some owners and coaches may have hated him on Sundays, and probably some other days, but everyone knew that the league was his priority. The 1920s were a rough decade for the NFL. Too many franchises came and went. Too many players followed the money and jumped from team to team. Too many people saw professional football as something closer to a circus. The college game dominated in popularity. When Joe Carr was elected President of the NFL in 1922, the league found the right man. Through his leadership, the league made it through the 1920s. He pushed for stable franchises in big cities. Halas in Chicago. Tim Mara in New York. Art Rooney in Pittsburgh. Bert Bell in Philadelphia. George Preston Marshall in Boston and then Washington. He brought stability and eventually legitimacy. The War years of the 1940s were rough for everyone. The NFL would have been better off if Carr was around for those years but he passed suddenly in 1939. The league survived. In 1946, the NFL again found the perfect man for the job in Bert Bell. Competitive balance was his chief desire. The draft was his idea when he was the owner of the Eagles in 1936. As commissioner, he pushed for revenue sharing. He rightly believed that the strength of the league was determined by the strength of each of it's teams. He pushed for television contracts. Much of the what Pete Rozelle accomplished as commissioner a decade later was initiated by Bell. Professional football still trailed baseball in popularity but the work of Bert Bell was closing the gap. His successor, Pete Rozelle would lead the NFL to the top of sports world. Strong team owners and excellent league leaders were always there when the league needed them. In the rough early days, through threats from rival leagues, World War II, anything. The NFL always had the right people for the job.

Now, I've always been a football nut. Everything about the game fascinates me. From the underrated work of the equipment manager to the fantastic play on the field. It wasn't long after the game took hold of me that I discovered NFL Films. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by the amazing films, the art, the emotion, the beauty. I didn't think that it was possible to make football better but NFL Films always found a way to do just that. Many, like me, discovered NFL Films because of their love of the game. There's another bunch of football fans that found their way to the NFL because of the incredible work of NFL Films. Ed Sabol's little Blair Motion Pictures won the rights to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and new York Giants. Imagine if Rozelle had selected some other production company to film that game. Where would the NFL be now? I doubt that Ed Sabol would have gone away quietly. We're all so very lucky that Blair Motion Pictures was selected in 1962. Once Sabol's work was seen, the NFL wasn't going to let him go. In 1964, Blair became NFL Films, with an exclusive contract to preserve all games on film. The NFL was hooked and we've all followed. Ed's work and passion brought Steve's vision and incredible eye for art. Together, they've made NFL Films one of the most incredible film production businesses ever. One of the most incredible businesses ever. Some might think it silly to equate the filming of football to art. The Sabols produce beautiful football art. Their work to push the NFL forward is every bit as important as the work of Halas, Carr, Mara, Rooney, Marshall, Bell, Paul Brown, Rozelle, Lombardi, etc.
The NFL has been so incredibly lucky.

Too Long

The bye week can be a good thing. It can be a great thing when it comes later in the season. It can be a great thing when a team is tying to get players healthy. The Minnesota Vikings have now entered their bye week. It's a little early but it's nice to have a break following their trip to London. Entering the bye week after a win makes everything better. The players get away on a high note. Unfortunately, it's not all good. Vikings fans are going to make the next two weeks seem more like a month. The talk of Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder has already grown old. It was already old in less than an hour after the win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

There is a quarterback controversy in Minnesota. A team with no wins finally getting a win with the backup quarterback will create a controversy. Sad, but true. I hate these controversies. Mainly because all those talking about it are not involved in the decision process. Cassel played well against the Steelers. Receivers Greg Jennings and Jerome Simpson made plays for him. Adrian Peterson was back to his dynamite running. The offensive line played their best game of the season. The thing that so many of the talking heads and fans seem to miss, probably because of the win, is that this game was so similar to the previous two losses. This was the third straight game that the Vikings controlled late. The third straight game that they could have put away but the offense failed to score a touchdown or failed to get a first down. The third straight game that the defense allowed a team to move down the field in the final minute. Really, the only thing truly different about his game was that the defense made a play at the end to seal the win. Defensive end Everson Griffen sacked Ben Roethlisberger, forced a fumble, Kevin Williams recovered. Game over. The Steelers were six yards from doing serious damage to the Vikings chance for their first win. In that sense, there isn't much difference in the quarterback play of Ponder and Cassel.

Cassel played well. He actually looked more confident and comfortable in the pocket than Ponder did in the first three games. Some of that could be Cassel's greater experience. He's seen more so he can react more quickly. It could also be because the offensive line gave him a better pocket so he could be more comfortable. Personally, I think that the Vikings can win games with either quarterback. The entire team has had breakdowns that have resulted in a rough start to the season. Too many have placed the blame for three losses on Ponder. There is too much blame to heap it all on one person. If Leslie Frazier starts Ponder coming out of the bye, there could a mutiny of the supposed Vikings faithful. If the decision was mine, I'd probably lean towards Cassel simply because he looks more comfortable on the field. No matter the reason, comfort in the pocket goes a long way. But, I'm not around the team. I can't see or feel how the team reacts to one quarterback or the other. Many players raved about Cassel's poise and leadership in the huddle and on the field. I imagine that winning makes everything feel better. If the team feels better with Cassel, so be it. Frazier will be the one to make the decision but I really think that team might make it for him. Most fans have already made up their minds. It's Cassel or bust. If Ponder trots out on the field against the Carolina Panthers, the fans will probably want Frazier's head. Fans are passionate about this but it's Frazier's job, and the jobs of his coaches, that could hinge on this decision. I doubt that he makes it carelessly. I wish that fans would try to understand that.

All I know for sure is that this bye week is going to be way, way too long. This quarterback controversy has already gotten old.

Congratulations Mr. Brees

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees passed Fran Tarkenton for sixth place on the all-time passing yards list. Tarkenton's one time NFL record of 47,003 yards passing has now been passed six times. As an itty bitty Minnesota Vikings fan in the 1970s, Tarkenton was my first favorite football player. I even had his likeness on a birthday cake. Special stuff. I remember when Tarkenton broke all of John Unitas' all-time passing records. Touchdowns, attempts, completions, and the passing yards. All of them. Tarkenton at one time had every significant passing record in the books. He actually held those records for nearly twenty years. Dan Marino ended up shattering every one of them. Brett Favre made them his before he retired for the final time. The way that quarterbacks are throwing the ball these days no passing record is safe.

After passing Tarkenton, Brees now has Warren Moon in his sites. He's a little more than 2,000 yards behind Moon so fifth place should be his before this season is done. He might even be able to reach John Elway's 51,475 yards and fourth place.

Peyton Manning is currently in third at 60,957 yards. With the way that he's throwing the ball, he should pass Marino's 61,361 yards as soon as this Sunday. Favre's NFL record of 71,838 yards should be safe for a couple of years. Manning isn't slowing down at the age of 37. Brees, at 34, likely has even more years ahead of him. I think that Favre's records fall to one or both.

For now, congratulations Drew Brees on passing my childhood hero.