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SIDELINE ARCHIVE Santa's Sackings January 01, 2009 Ready for the Turkey November 27, 2008 Making it to the Big Dance November 26, 2008 Brighter Days Ahead for Chargers? November 5, 2008 Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale Some Notes on the Defenses Maybe it’s the effect of fantasy football’s steady takeover, but I’ve been talking offense a lot here recently. Not today. This one's about defensive stuff, so fantasy obsessives may feel free to search down for the word ‘Vinny’. (Have they gone? Okay, let's whisper) Defense, they say, wins championships. You may have heard that already. By extension, some people say defense is most important in the post–season, and offense is key for the regular season. But I'm not convinced. Aside from the fact that I don't recall many regular season record–winners that didn't have something going on defensively – opportunism at least – the first five weeks of this season suggests that defense is important, right here, right now, in October. Look at the truly horrible teams of the NFL, and name me one that has a good defense but a weak offense. Did you say Chicago or the Dolphins? Shame on you – you've been listening to reputations again (are you SURE you're not a fantasy owner?). In yards conceded by the defense, the Bears and the Dolphins rank among the league's ten WORST teams, both within a sneeze of 345 yards/game. The Rams, Jets, Bills, Browns and of course the Bengals all rank even lower. Which got me calculating: is there a unheralded team out there that has a working or workable defense that is just waiting for the offense to show up and make a late run? After looking past the glut of AFC South teams with impressive defenses (all four – Titans, Colts, Jags and Texans are in the top 11), six names stand out. Three aren't entirely surprising. We're all just a little perplexed at the Saints, but we know the offense is AWOL right now; the Buccaneers rise to competitiveness was suggested in our season preview (in The American newspaper); and we've been tempted to believe in the Cardinals before, so we'll skim them for now. The other three are intriguing. The Atlanta Falcons, at No.15 in defensive yards/game, aren't exactly dominant, but they are still playing, keeping up their end of the bargain in case one of their quarterbacks fancies seizing the opportunity. If that happens, second place in the division is still accomplishable. Everybody has forgotten the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure, they looked horrible last time we saw them, but the Eagles have some history with late surges, and the bye week may have given them time to solve some issues. If McNabb and Westbrook are both sufficiently fit, this team has the No.9 defense in the league and three defensively porous teams out of their break. Do not be surprised if they're back in the wildcard picture for December. And now the shocker: the Kansas City Chiefs. In my mind and my preseason predictions, this was a team going nowhere, and despite having a top 10 defense, there's no avoiding the fact that they have No.24 rush defense in quite the wrong division (cause or effect?). But I saw them having no pass offense, and it's the rush offense that's rancid. In fact, it's LAST. That's right, the Larry Johnson offense is producing the LEAST rush yards in the league. I can't help feeling that maybe he needs a fullback who is a fullback rather than a tight end (Kris Wilson). Or just the tiniest threat of a passing game? (Well, whaddayaknow, we ended up back on offense after all). Vinny Alert! Really, I can't believe it. He's back again, the veteran of 20 seasons, now on his eighth team. Surely in the era of the forward pass there's enough options at quarterback that a team shouldn't have to sign a guy who predates the forward pass. He's actually been in the league eight years longer than his latest team. When he was first drafted, it was to replace Steve DeBerg (and if you put those two careers end to end, that's about half the history of the NFL). I tried to look up his career statistics, and the early entries were in Latin. There's at least one player in the league who wasn't even born when Testaverde was drafted. Testaverde was drafted the same week The Simpsons first appeared as part of The Tracy Ullman Show – so long ago, people could still remember who Tracy Ullman was. The world population still began with a '4' (and no, it wasn't just 4). Vinny will back up David Carr. But when somebody says 'Testaverde is like having an extra QB coach on the sidelines', all I can think is 'Yes, but why ISN'T he a QB coach on the sideline? Why is he still wearing pads?'. The answer, of course, is yards. He has a lot of yards. – sigh – ...okay fantasy fans, get ready to sign him. Because you know how well Carr avoids those sacks. |
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