Week 4 Predictions

Browns @ Bengals 17-20
Packers @ Buccaneers 24-20
Falcons @ Panthers 10-24
Vikings @ Titans 13-21
Texans @ Jaguars 10-17
Broncos @ Chiefs 38-13
Niners @ Saints 12-19
Cardinals @ J-E-T-S 31-20
Chargers @ Raiders 31-14
Bills @ Rams 23-13
Redskins @ Cowboys 17-23
Bears @ Eagles 13-23
Ravens @ Steelers 13-17

Week 3 Picks review

Chiefs @ Atlanta - Right but bigger score
Raiders @ Bills - Right but smaller score
Bucs @ Bears - Wrong but close
Panthers @ Vikings - Right and close
Dolphins @ Patriots - WRONG, COMPLETELY.
Bengals @ Giants - Right but smaller score
Texans @ Titans - Right but close
Cards @ Skins - Wrong
Saints @ Broncos - Right and close
Lions @ Niners - Right but larger margin
Rams @ Hawks - Right but bigger scores
Browns @ Ravens - WRONG
Jags @ Colts - Wrong but close
Steelers @ Eagles - Wrong
Cowboys @ Packers - Right but larger margin of victory
Jets @ Chargers - If you double both scores I was right

10-16 from that but 12 right in picks games.

My Week 3 Picks

After being reasonably close on most of last weeks picks, here is this weeks

Chiefs @ Atlanta 19-23
Raiders @ Bills 17-34
Bucs @ Bears 20-27
Panthers @ Vikings 17-20 (Panthers may spring a shock if no AP for Vikes)
Dolphins @ Patriots 9-27
Bengals @ Giants 10-31
Texans @ Titans 13-20
Cardinals @ Redskins 34-30

Saints @ Broncos 31-38
Lions @ Niners 13-16
Rams @ Seahawks 9-20
Browns @ Ravens 20-17 although I have picked Ravens to win everywhere else, Crennel needs a win.
Jaguars @ Colts 17-23
Steelers @ Eagles 30-27

Cowboys @ Packers 28-27

Jets @ Chargers 14-24

patrioteagle

Week 2 Picks

Not about Ellis Hobbs intercepted Favre or Asante Samuel on Tony Romo.

Bears @ Panthers 13-17
Packers @ Lions 14-10
Bills @ Jaguars 21-14
Raiders @ Chiefs 21-24
Giants @ Rams 24-9
Colts @ Vikings 20-14
Titans @ Bengals 13-10
Saints @ Redskins 17-14
49ers @ Seahawks 6-31
Falcons @ Buccaneers 17-24
Chargers @ Broncos 17-16
Patriots @ Jets 23-20
Dolphins @ Cardinals 7-21
Steelers @ Browns 31-13
Eagles @ Cowboys 17-20
Ravens @ Texans 13-7

Injury Lists - Whats the point?

In the NFL, there are 32 teams with 53 Players per team. 53*32=1696 players.

Of these 1696 players, 201 are on the injury lists for Week 2. Thats near enough 12% of players, so nearly 1 in every 8 players has some sort of niggle or injury and its only Week 1. They have played 5 matches including pre-season where they will have had limited injury time.

These figures dont include players on Injured Reserve list like Shawne Merriman or Tom Brady which makes it worse.
132 players will not take part again this season as they have been put on IR.
And another 17 will not play until at least Week 7 as they have been placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.

So thats 350 players that have an injury in the whole of the NFL. Enough to make up 6 new teams of 53. Hell, you can make two teams out of those on IR.

So, why is there an injury report and what is the point in it.

Tom Brady was on the Injury Report for 3 years, ever since he won the Patriots' last Lombardi Trophy. The first time he played off it, he went on Injured Reserve and wont play again. Karma? or a mere coincidence. There was never any proof that Brady had a bad shoulder, most QBs do struggle with their shoulder at one time or another, but should the fans be expected to believe that TB can break the TD record with one good arm?

Belichick knows that it isnt take it seriously. He put Moss on the Injury list to whip up a controversy about his back and how it happened. By some coincidence, there were more questions about Moss than normal and less directed to Bill about his new QB. Again, Coincidence or not?

It honestly wouldnt surprise me to see an injury report of:

Kevin Faulk RB, Questionable (Taste in Drugs)
Laurence Maroney RB, Questionable (Hairstyle)
Logan Mankins OL, Questionable (Weight)
Ellis Hobbs CB, Questionable (Ability)

When a team has 17 players on the Injury Report and 12 are questionable but likely to play, you wonder why they bother putting this down apart from to create some tension about their players and maybe create an excuse or two for a loss.

I'm tired so most of this may not make sense, but thanks for reading and tomorrow will be a new badges update, and my picks for Week 2.

For Now,
PatriotEagle

A subject closer to home.

The Superbowl XLIII MVP is Matt Cassel, Quarterback, New England Patriots.

2 weeks ago this statement would sound as ludicrous as the St. Louis Rams winning the Superbowl this year.

2 weeks ago, Matt Cassel was in danger of being cut and the PFW blog said they received over 300 emails on the QB situation and every single one was for Matt Gutierrez to keep his place in the 53 rather than Mr. Interception himself.

Why has everything changed in such a short time.

3 little letters, one tackle and a scream of pain.

A tackle from KC Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard on Tom Bradys knee caused the Quarterback to fall to the floor, as TV cameras followed the ball to Randy Moss who collected the ball and then fumbled, a scream of pain brought the camera back to the future HOFer Quarterback who laid stricken on the floor having torn his left ACL. The Razor was silent as he limped off and down a tunnel with the Patriots hopes of a return to the Superbowl slamming shut with the door.

So after the Chiefs' 3-and-out a new figure returned to the field after a punt to the Patriots 2 yard line. Matt Cassel wearing Number 16, the crowd cheered him so highly onto the field that Randy Moss said he thought Brady had come running up the stairs out of the tunnel and he looked over before the play. Cassel handed the ball off to 2nd RB Sammy Morris twice in a row, first being taken back to the 1yd line and then inches away from a Safety. Now Cassel facing 3rd and 11+ a few inches, had a play to make his career. After not starting a match since highschool and barely playing in College or as a NFL player, the first meaningful snap in years went into his hands. The OL held back the blitzing defense and Cassel launched a pass perfectly into the hands of the waiting Randy Moss, who almost took it to the house but was taken down around halfway. The drive was completed for a Touchdown and the outlook of a season had dramatically changed in about 4-5 minutes.

Cassel and the Patriots completed the win and are now unbeaten in 20 regular season games.

Why do I think the Patriots can still win the Superbowl, when they are no longer favourites to win either their Conference or their Division.

In 2001, the Patriots suffered an injury to Drew Bledsoe and Belichick allowed Brady to lead the team to their first ever Superbowl. Yes, Brady was better than Cassel is now, but there is one big difference. The team then had very few quality players and relied on Defense to win games 10-3, 7-3 etc. Teams knew that they had to stop the Patriots scoring too many as it was so difficult to break the defense down.

The pressure on Brady was deflected by other players to allow him to settle into his new starters job.

Fast forward 7 years and Matt Cassel is in. The defense is definitely weaker with a secondary that is inexperienced and lacks depth. But they have All-Pro players and pro-bowlers in Rodney Harrison, Teddy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Adalius Thomas just to name a few. They have first round draft pick Jerod Mayo who adds youth and pace to the aging linebacker corps. They have a great front 3 who stopped the run so admirably against the Chiefs.

But, this defense will not keep a team like the Colts, the Chargers or the Cowboys from scoring 21-30 points+. But, the Patriots have a relatively easy schedule this year and should get to the playoffs without having to beat the Colts or the Chargers and when you are in the play-offs they are a lottery.

The main difference between 2001 and 2008, is the Offense. There were few bigname players in the 2001 team compared to now. Randy Moss and Wes Welker the best WR combination in football. One is there for the big plays and one is there whenever you need him.

A 5 man backfield of Maroney, Morris, Jordan, Faulk and Heath Evans. All have varying parts to the Offensive game and can release the pressure on Cassel to throw and Faulk is a vital weapon on 3rd down.

And the best Offensive Line in the game. 3 probowlers and two couldbe probowlers. Even without Stephen Neal, they give enough time and space for a QB or an RB to gain yards down the pitch.

As with Brady, Cassel is having alot of the flak deflected away from him by senior players. Randy Moss is taking over alot of the media coverage in his role as one of the captains and without Brady his role is bigger on the offensive side. And with the games best head coach in charge of him, who would doubt Moss being bigger and better before and making Cassel look like a superstar

I know a lot of you will think this is all homer talk and as they are my team I would say this, but when the media write off the games best coach in Bill Belichick, the team are going to fight hard for the Lombardi Trophy and with the NY media acting the way they are with Brady, I wouldnt want to be a New York Jet this coming Saturday. I wont focus on the Pats as much anymore during this blog but there was alot for me to put so if you are still reading then thanks.

Matt Cassel will be a free agent and sailing off into the open market as a Superbowl MVP.

They are my reasons for believing that the New England Patriots and Matt Cassel will be lifting the Lombardi Trophy in Tampa on February 1st 2009.

ACL - What effect does it have?

This is my first of two blogs, the second of which will be a feature on the AFC East and how one mans early decision has cost him a better job and another man whose leg may yet cost him his career.

Over the last few days, there have been a number of injuries to the ACL of some NFL players. To find out what this means, I will show what effect it has on a player and who has had it before.

But first, what is an ACL.
ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. It is one of four ligaments in the knee that keeps the joint stable. When you bust your ACL, you have the sensation that your legs have given out from under you. When this sensation occurs, you lose more of your knee cartilage due to feeling like you are falling and forcing your leg down. The sudden high pressure contact to the knee causes extreme pain as shown by Bradys screams as he went down from Pollards tackle.

Next, what Sports Stars, particularly Gridiron players have suffered a torn ACL.
Jerry Rice (NFL hall of famer)
Willis McGahee
Carson Palmer (Current QB for the Bengals)
Jamaal Anderson
Lee Evans WR, Buffalo.
Tiger Woods. He won a major with a torn ACL, but was playing a sport with less bodily contact and requires less mobility between shots/plays.
Now, 2 other players have suffered this injury and another has suffered a lesser version after tearing their MCL (Vince Young)

Tom Brady and Nate Burleson can take some sort of comfort in the fact that the majority of players that have surgery recover from their injury within a year with little side effect.

Quote:

Data were analyzed for 31 players with 33 ACL injuries. Of the injured
players, 21 percent (7 of 33 ACL injuries) never returned to play in another
regular season NFL game. Of the 79 percent that did return, most players
returned to action 9 to 12 months after an ACL injury.
For those players who
returned to NFL action following an ACL injury, performance fell by one-third,
the researchers found. Power rating per game played decreased from 9.9
pre-injury to 6.5 post-injury. This decline in player production was
statistically significant when compared to the 146 players in the control group.
Knee pain, stiffness, loss of strength, deconditioning and reduced
proprioception (the sense of knowing where your leg is) may be factors
explaining the loss of production in players after an ACL injury, the authors
theorize. Further, ACL reconstruction does not perfectly recreate the complex
anatomy and composition of a person's ACL before injury.
Interestingly,
prior to their injury the ACL-injured players performed better than did
controls. "High-performance RBs and WRs are more likely to be injured because
they compete in more plays per game, carry the ball longer on each play, and
attract more defensive attention," the authors say. "The same qualities of RBs
and WRs that contribute to high performance -- instantaneous decelerations as
well as explosive pivoting and cutting maneuvers -- may increase the risk for
ACL injury."
The researchers cite a recent survey of all 31 NFL team
physicians who were asked to quantify "what percentage of players return to play
in the NFL after ACL reconstruction." Ninety percent of team physicians
responded "90 to 100 percent" of players (assuming not borderline talent) return
to the NFL. The current study found the number of players who return to play
after an ACL injury was actually less, at 79 percent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So will Brady and Burleson recover to be back to their best to score more touchdowns than ever before, or will their careers fade into obscurity as they fade from the limelight wishing that they could have one last chance.

Thats all for this time.

My 6 Rookie stars for the Season

DeSean Jackson WR - Philly
Jerod Mayo LB - New England
Rashard Mendenhall RB - Pittsburgh
Felix Jones RB - Dallas
Matthew Slater WR/KR - New England
Antoine Cason CB - San Diego

Week 1 - My Thoughts

Ups - Forte, Ryan, Flacco, McNabb, Romo, TO, Steelers, Favre, Delhomme, Cassel, Parker, Bears and DeSean Jackson
Downs - Brady, Croyle, Palmer, Bengals, Rams, Browns, 49ers, Anderson, Colts and the Chargers

My Player of the Week:
Joint Winner: DeSean Jackson and Donovan McNabb tie. Philadelphia Eagles.
Runner-Up: Jake Delhomme. Impressive win against the Chargers with last minute TD. Carolina Panthers

My Team of the Week: Chicago Bears
Runner-up: Pittsburgh Steelers - Highest Scoring team of week 1 along with the Eagles but combined passing and rushing effectively.

My Loser of the Week:
Winner: Tom Brady, New England. Obvious reasons
Runner-up: The Jags OL, allowing Garrard to be sacked 7 times.

Worst Team of the Week
Winner: St Louis Rams, only team not to score a touchdown.
Runner-up: Chargers, AFC 2nd favourites lose their first game in last second.

Week 2 Predictions:
The Patriots lose their first regular season game in nearly 2 years facing the archenemy Jets.
The Colts and Chargers get back on the track.
Romo and TO continue their connection to keep the Cowboys moving.
There will be more QB injuries after injuries to Brady, Croyle, Young
Brett Favre will get picked off by Terrence Wheatley.
The Phins will come close to winning their game but will just miss out against the Cards.
The Steelers will run rampant.