Rams Recap
I feel like it's October again. A St. Louis sports team plays in the afternoon with the TV network's B announcers, while New York plays in prime-time. Either way, today was a huge win for the Rams and their head coach/media punching bag. "The Madman" Mike Martz was at his time-out burning- and offensive play-calling best. He drew up a great plan, working both Marshall Faulk and Steven Jackson into the offense, while exploiting the inexperience in the Seahawks' secondary. The winning touchdown came on an aggressive call- a play-action toss in tight man coverage to a man who caught only seven passes all year.Yet another criticism of Martz this week was that he had the audacity to suggest that Marc Bulger was a better quarterback than Kurt Warner ever was. I'm a big fan of both players, but I can't help but notice another double standard directed towards Martz. Other coaches would be applauded for trying to build up the confidence of the current field general. Not a bad idea in this case considering the large shadow Bulger stepped into. The early season TV ratings for the New York Giants in the St. Louis market bear that out. Again today, Bulger was as cool as they come.
Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer needs trendier eyeglasses. Fair or not, I've always viewed Schottenheimer as the posterboy for NFL conservatism. It's fitting on a day that Martz flaunts the conventions of the game and rolls to victory that Schottenheimer goes down to yet another playoff defeat. Observe the last Chargers' possession against the Jets- the team is driving and Marty switches off with three running plays and a field goal attempt. Playing it safe, were we? If you're not going to loosen up the play calling after all these years, how about some new specs? I look at Schottenheimer and it's 1985 again. He should suction a Baby On Board sign to those lenses. How 'bout a Queer Eye Day at Qualcomm Stadium next year?
One of the early newswire recaps of the Rams' game proclaimed that both the 8-8 Rams and the 9-7 Seahawks "played down to expectations." I'm sure Sunday morning's AFC recap will likewise hold the conference accountable for the 'roughing the passer' penalty and the shanked field goal.
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It wasn't a bad day for the Cardinals, either. Their manager gets a three year extension, with a contract for the GM to follow. The deadline for the Astros to re-sign Carlos Beltran passes without an agreement, which also makes it harder for them to talk Roger Clemens out of retirement.
posted by CM @ 1:18 AM
2 Comments:
I posted a comment the other day that I thought it meant something about the NFL when 6 of the 8 wild card teams were ranked among the 10 worst in the league this season. Inversely, all 8 teams finished the season among the top 12 defenses.
I thought it was interesting this weekend that one of those teams with a good defensive ranking (Denver was ranked 4th) got absolutely shelled, giving up 49 yards and 529(!) yards. When did the NFL become arena football? This morning, the "three yards and a cloud of dust" era of old is officially dead.
I misspoke in my comment. I meant to say that 6 of the 8 wild card teams were ranked in bottom 10 defensively, and all were in the top 12 offensively.
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