Category: NFL

Oo Yea I almost forgot….The Super Bowl

~ Dave Ettinger ~ Leave a comment

Does anybody else hate the fact that we have to wait an extra week for the Super Bowl? Personally, I hate it. Now I know this will never change because god forbid we take money out of anyone’s wallet. That would be a crime. But, from a fans perspective it really irks me that we have football every Sunday for 20 weeks in a row, and then before the most important game of the year we decide to take a week off. The only thing in sports worse than this is the time they take off before the College Football National “Championship”. Now I get why they take the week off. It helps set the stage by building up the anticipation for the game, the players get to have time with their families and friends in a different city every year, and the NFL gets to grab its share of the prize through player appearances and media week. Also, the host city boosts its economy while the NFL is in town. With all that being said, I still wish they would do away with the circus that is media week.

Lets move past the things we can not change. However, I do think the week off has an effect on the outcome of the game. The Ravens have been riding this wave of “destiny” as some would call it. When people say that Ray Lewis is destined to win this Super Bowl in his last season, I say they are carrying momentum through the playoffs. Most of this momentum is due to getting injured players back at the right time and Joe Flacco playing out of his mind right now doesn’t exactly hurt either. In my opinion the week off definitely favors the 49ers. It gives some of the injured 49ers a chance to get healthy, most notably Justin Smith. And it could possibly slow the Baltimore train that steamrolled its way through New England(which feels like a month ago not a week ago). Now am I saying that I want the Ravens to win and it’s an unfair advantage for them to have an extra week off? No not at all. I actually want the 49ers to win, due to my slight dislike of Ray “I didn’t do it” Lewis. What the Ravens need to do to win this game is try to be the more physical team. That is not an easy task when playing San Francisco. If you have watched them play this year you’d know that Navorro Bowman, Patrick Willis, and Aldon Smith are beasts on the football field. So, lets assume that the 49ers are going to be the more physical team on Sunday. How else can the Ravens win this football game without divine intervention? Well, a heavy dose of Ray Rice would be a nice start, but that will only be effective if Joe Flacco starts the game by taking deep shots down the field. This will stretch the field, keep the 49ers secondary honest, and prevent them from creeping towards the line on running plays. Once a nice balance of run and pass has been established that should allow an opportunity for them to go play action to Torrey Smith or Anquan Boldin throughout the game. This game plan should allow the Ravens to regain their momentum they’ve been carrying the past couple of weeks. While I believe this will work in the first half and the Ravens should jump out to an early lead, I don’t see them sustaining their offensive attack. Ultimately, I think the outcome of this game will come down to the team that is more physical and whichever QB plays better. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been waiting for Colin Kaepernick to make a huge “rookie” mistake that will cost his team a game. It just hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not about to pick this game for it to start. I think he’ll play mistake free football and manage the game as he has done since he took the reigns of this machine 10 weeks ago. I see this being a close game where the Ravens jump out to an early lead. However, in the end I see the 49ers controlling the time of possession and just playing too physical a brand of football for the Ravens to withstand. Sorry Ray, your “path” ends in New Orleans. You’ll have only your own shortcomings to thank for losing this game. My prediction for this game is 27-23(San Francisco). Enjoy the game!

The UnNatural Disaster that is the NY JETS

~ Dave Ettinger ~ Leave a comment

Hey let’s hop in our time machine and go back to 2009. Come on, this will be fun. So here we are beating quality teams on the road in the postseason. We come one win shy of a trip to the Super Bowl, but it was certainly a successful season. We have a top 5 rushing attack, top 5 defense, very good receivers, and an up and coming quarterback who’s confidence is building game by game. Our coach is a defensive minded coach who seems to know how to rally the troops every Sunday. Quick let us fast forward to the present day. We are in my estimation the most poorly run organization in the NFL, and we are the laughing stock of newspapers and sports talk shows nationwide. I’m going to tell you how we got from where we were to how we became the most entertaining circus since Barnum and Baileys. Then I’ll break down step by step what we need to do to get back to Super Bowl contention.
After consecutive trips to the AFC Championship in ’09 and ’10, you’d think the Jets would have a blueprint for success in their back pocket somewhere. Well someone from the Patriots obviously infiltrated the Jets organization as a spy and did that flashy memory erase thingy from Men In Black. Yo, Tommy Lee Jones is looking old as hell isn’t he? Which brings me to Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzanegger. Guys, you’re like 100! Stop making action flicks! You guys look ridiculous! Anyway, here’s why the Jets have crumbled over the past two seasons. Mark Sanchez is Alex Smith. They are both mentally weak, and they are at the peak of their potential; game managers. If Sanchez is going to be your guy you need to cater to his needs. Which is really the Jets biggest problem. If you need to have a perfect roster built around your QB just to be successful, then Sanchez isn’t your guy. You want my professional opinion? Sanchez is a bum. A franchise QB should be your captain and leader! He shouldn’t sulk and let his play circle the drain because your owner brought in Tim Tebow. That is the only time I will bring up that guy in this entire article because he’s obviously horrendous and isn’t worth wasting my breath on. Clearly not a football move, clearly for $ and front page headlines, blah blah blah we all know this already. Somebody stuff a sock in Skip Bayless’ mouth and tape it shut please. He obviously gets paid to play devils advocate because even he cant believe the garbage that spews out his mouth. Anyway, the Jets need someone to smack them silly and then sit them down in front of a mirror. If it sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it’s probably a, yup you got it, a duck. Rex Ryan needs to get fired because he’s not the guy. If you’re not going to fire him then at least tell him to shut his trap. Mark Sanchez is also not the guy, so why don’t we extend his freakin contract for no good reason. I mean come on!! The jets have literally done the exact opposite of what they should be doing. And as if last year couldn’t have gone any worse, why don’t we express to the rest of the league that we WANT to trade Darrelle Revis? Yup sure great idea Mr new General Manager guy, lets find the only way possible to get less value out of him. He only missed almost an entire season with a serious injury. And he’s only about the most stubborn guy in the world when it comes to contract negotiations. So lets please trade him for a 5th round pick and a bucket of chicken. All my Seinfeld fans out there got that one. What they should have done was trade him when his value was highest. Unfortunately that time isn’t now so they need to keep him until after the season starts, let him play well, and then trade him for as many pieces as possible. For all of you Jets fans out there that drink the Rex Ryan kool-aid, we are going to do this because we are NOT GOOD and we are in rebuilding mode. Dumb Fan #1: We are? Really? Me: Uh yea we suck. On that note, we need to start from scratch and rebuild this franchise. We need to get a bunch of draft picks for Revis and start to clear cap space for 2 years from now. Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez need to be fired and we need to start filling all of the holes on the roster. Those holes include : at least 2 WR’s, 2 RB’s, a TE, 2 O-Lineman, and a pass rush. Oo yea I almost forgot, we also need a QB, but that’s just a tiny little detail. How silly of me. So, as anyone with eyes can see, we have a lot of work ahead of us before we can think about the playoffs. Lets get to work then. Think you have the answer to the Jets problems?? Leave your ideas in the comment section below…..

AFC Championship Recap

~ Dave Ettinger ~ 3 Comments

Let me be the first to say that I was wrong.  I tried to pick this game with my brain rather than my heart(my heart bleeds green when it comes to football), which seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  As I wrote in my preview, I figured that the Patriots offense would be too much for the Ravens to handle.  Boy, was that not the case.  It turned out that the Ray Lewis driven defense was too much for Tom Brady to handle.  They put pressure on Brady and forced him to throw 2 interceptions.  Everyone is blaming the Patriots loss on continual small mistakes like the drops they had throughout the game.  If you watched the entire game, you would have seen that it was more than that.  The Patriots were completely outplayed and supremely OUT COACHED.  I don’t put out coached in that it looks like I’m yelling font because of my strong dislike for Bill Belichick.  I say it like that because he was simply the 2nd best coach on the sidelines on Sunday.  That is a rare occurrence for someone considered to be the best coach of his generation.  And, while that might be true, let’s delve into the mistakes that he made that cost him another trip back to the promised land.  Now we all know there was no Gronk, but we’ve known that for some time now so that’s not part of the problem.  For me it all started with their decision to run the ball on a 3rd and 2 on their second offensive drive.  This possession was the first of many trips to the Ravens red zone that did not end in a touchdown(The Patriots were 1 for 6 in terms of touchdowns inside the Ravens 25 yard line).  I think Ridley is a nice little back that should be successful for years to come, but what they should have done was play action to him and allow Hernandez to delay across the middle.  I mean all they needed was 2 yards and an inch.  Now let us move on to what I would call Bill Belichick’s worst blunder of his career.  Let me paint a picture for you of where they were.  The Patriots got the ball back on the ravens 43 yard line, with 2:32 on the clock in the 2nd quarter, and all 3 timeouts.  That kind of time on the Ravens side of the field is an eternity for Tom Brady, usually.  So they proceed to get a first down on a really nice 4th and 1 play where Tom Brady pretended to be getting a new play called in to his headset and Woodhead take a direct snap for a 1st down.  They were then forced to use their first timeout.  This play caught the Ravens completely off guard, and they seemed to be heading for 7 points right before the half to extend their lead to 17-7.  This would not be the case, and here’s where everything went awry.  After two incomplete passes, Brady completed a nice pass to Hernandez going towards to the right sideline, and what does Hernandez do?  Instead of running out of bounds and saving their 2nd timeout, he spins up field and maybe gains 2 yards out of the play.  Here, at the ravens 10 yard line, the Patriots are forced to burn their 2nd timeout with 26 seconds left in the half.  Now, even after that first blunder, having 26 seconds left and a timeout would lead you to believe that Brady can still get off 3 plays and try to punch one in the end-zone.  This was also not the case.  On the next play, Brady gets forced out of the pocket to his left and rather than throw the ball away he runs up field for a lousy 3 yards, while throwing his leg up high in his slide and nearly catching Ed Reed in his “family jewels”.  This was clearly intentional and while I knew Brady had inherited that smug cold-hearted attitude from Belichick, I never saw Brady as a dirty player.  Anyway, the Patriots jump up, doing their best Dallas Cowboys/Tony Romo impressions and act like they are going to get back to the line and spike the ball.  Instead they let the clock run all the way down to 4 seconds.  This forces them to call their final timeout and kick a field goal on 2ND DOWN!  The words awful, horrifying, and horrendous just don’t do this 2 minute drill justice.  I haven’t seen a horror movie this bad since The Wicker Man.  Have you seen this movie?  Man, that is some bad stuff.  You would think that Nicholas Cage would still want to make good movies, since he’s broke and all.  “Yeah, I think I’ll buy another island today.”  Yeah good investment, buddy.  Anyway, back to the ineptitude of Bill Belichick.  So, instead of going in to the half up 17-7, the Patriots carried a 13-7 lead into the locker room.  Now this may not have mattered in the grand scheme of things but it was a microcosm of how this game played out.  Once Aqib Talib went down with an injury Anquan Boldin became the Patriots worst nightmare.  Talib’s backup made Boldin look like Larry Fitzgerald out there.  Can someone please get that man a QB in Arizona, I mean how bad do you feel for that guy?  The Arizona Cardinals’ general managers are actually depriving us of a chance to watch a great show and possibly history.  Fitzgerald was primed and ready to become the next Randy Moss, or better.  Yea I said it, but the guys just never had anyone to throw him the ball.  I digress, again.  In the end, the pressure was put on Tom Brady to throw, throw, and throw some more once they got down in the 2nd half.  I have to put a tiny bit of the blame on the drops and little mistakes(lets call that %10), some of it is on Brady(maybe 30%), but I leave most of the blame for Belichick to shoulder(the other 60%).   I must give credit to the Ravens defense though who hung tough with Brady.  Also, Joe Flacco seems to save his best for when he’s going up against the best.  He outplayed Brady, again.  Only this time there were no dropped touchdown passes.  This game was never in doubt once the Ravens took the lead.  Now it’s on to the SuperBowl for Joe Flacco and the Ravens.  So the question is, will Joe Flacco rise up against the stingy 49ers defense or will he fold and let this golden opportunity slip through his fingers?

NFC Championship Recap

~ Dave Ettinger ~ Leave a comment

Originally Posted on 1/20/13 @ 7:01 P.M.

Well, I came about 12 yards short and a 4th and 4 away from hitting the score of this game right on the head. If you read my preview of the NFC Championship, I had the Falcons winning on a last second TD(31-24).  So close but oh so far.  The Falcons put forth a great effort, and I want to congratulate them on a wonderful season. First, I must ask, why in the world would you put Matt Ryan on the move for one of the most important plays of the game? 3rd and 4 when it’s touchdown or bust is not the time to try something new with a straight forward, very good, pocket passer. Anyway, if you had watched this football game without looking at the score, you would have thought the Falcons won by 2 touchdowns. However in the end, the 49ers defense and running attack along with some untimely Falcons mistakes was too much for Atlanta to handle in the 2nd half.  Kaepernick did not make the mistakes I foresaw him making, on the other hand it was Matt Ryan making 2 very poor mistakes in the 2nd half that cost them the game. His interception was just a flat out poor decision. And the fumble was simple, he decided to look at the 49ers defense, that was coming for his head, half a second too early. The falcons really need to look into a game plan for stopping Tight Ends and Wide Receivers from getting into the middle of the field on crossing patterns next year. That is their teams biggest problem. At the same time, I must give credit to the 49ers defense who shut down the Falcons in the 2nd half, and to the running game of Frank Gore and Lamichael James. James is going to be something special next year , remember I said that. This was a hard fought game, and the 49ers should make the SuperBowl a well contested game no matter who they play. As for the Falcons, it’s better luck next year. I think they are here to stay with the combination of Julio Jones and Roddy White catching balls from Matt Ryan. And, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to have Tony Gonzalez over for a nice dinner this offseason and try to entice him to stick around one more year. I personally think he should give it 1 more year to try to add a SuperBowl to his already stellar hall of fame career. With that said, lets watch Tom Brady do what Tom Brady does best. Win. Enjoy game 2 of this relaxing football Sunday!

Conference Championships Part 2

~ Dave Ettinger ~ 1 Comment

Originally Posted on 1/19/13 @ 7:18 P.M.

Earlier I touched on what I thought would occur in the NFC Championship. Now it’s time to move on to the AFC Championship. Like I wrote earlier, I do believe that both games will be close, so if I were a betting man I would definitely take the 8 points the Ravens are getting. However, while I do enjoy Ray Lewis’ comeback and his energy on the field, I’m just not buying into the destiny the same way Mike Greenberg is. Big fan of Mike and Mike in the morning by the way(hey Mike…and uh Mike, please stop going on vacation, because besides Colin Cowherd or Scott Van Pelt, it gets difficult to watch the show when you guys aren’t there. Anyway, like I was saying, yes Flacco seems to find a way to play well against the Patriots, and yes Ray Lewis seems to be on a path of destiny. But, even with all that being said, it’s just not going to be enough. They are simply the second best team suiting up in Foxborough this coming Sunday. The offensive machine of Tom Brady even without TheSummerOfGronk is just too good. Did I say good? I meant spectacular. Tom Brady, as much as I don’t want to say it as a life long Jets fan, will be hoisting the trophy and having a ring fitted in 2 weeks. He might even get a call from A Mr. Montana asking him to stop playing so well. I think that seat atop the best QB of all time list is pretty comfy. I also doubt it has room for two. As usual I digress. Lets get Back to the task at hand. I think the best chance the Ravens have to control the game and the clock is one of my favorite players in the league under 6 feet tall, Ray Rice. For some reason they forget how good he is sometimes. In games they get away from the run guess what happens they lose. In games Rice has 15 or more rushes including the postseason, they are 12-2. In games they forget to hand Rice the ball 15 times, they are 2-4. Hmmmmm, what should Jim Caldwell do? I think we all know the answer to that. So, thanks to the media giving Joe Flacco a false sense of confidence that he will be better than Tom Brady on Sunday, the Ravens will air it out and forget to get Rice enough touches, and they will lose. For my final point I think New England’s front 7 has been overshadowed in these playoffs by their offense. Shane Vereen says sorry, but I don’t think he means it. I think their front 7 will add to the pressure that’s already on Joe Flacco and he will crumble in the clutch moment. Flacco throws a pick while trying to drive for the game winning score, and the ravens fall just short. 34-30(New England). Enjoy the games on Sunday!

Conference Championships Part 1

~ Dave Ettinger ~ Leave a comment

Originally Posted on : 1/19/13 @ 9:52 A.M.

Are you ready for some football?  Personally, I can’t wait for kickoff on Sunday!  I expect these games to be just as exciting as the games we had the privilege to watch last weekend.  I think both of these games are going to come down to the final drives and could be decided by a field goal or last second touchdown.  Everyone out there as you know pretty much has the same 2 picks: New England and San Francisco.  At the same time, I know some are trying to kinda sorda jump on the Ravens/Ray Lewis/Destiny bandwagon and say they have a shot, but I think the other game is going to be the nailbiter.  On the heels of this Michael Crabtree distraction I think that there is just going to be just too much pressure on Mr. Kaepernick.  Crabtree has turned into a nice little receiver and clearly is the 49ers best option no matter where he is on the field.  I have always been a Randy Moss fan, but let’s be real, he’s 35 going on 75, and he looks like he’s jogging through his routes and breaks.  But with Crabtree’s mind preoccupied with his newly found investigation, I think Kaepernick will have to keep this game on the ground.  Yes, I know everyone who is reading this is saying hey buddy Kaepernick only broke a rushing record last week for a qb, why can’t he do it again?  And yes, the 49ers do have a great running game even without Kaepernick running wild, but I just like the home team to at least carry a lead into the 4th quarter.  The combination of Julio Jones and Roddy White is going to be too much even for this stellar 49ers’ defense.  My only reservation is that their defense might fade down the strech like last week.  I foresee Kaepernick finally looking like a quarterback in his first year and throwing not 1 but 2 untimely picks.  I think the Falcons will employ a well designed game plan and bend but not break when it comes to Kaepernick running.  Now, I don’t mean any disrespect to Colin Kaepernick because he does have mountains of potential and clearly has the arm strength to be a pocket passer in the NFL.  I mean heck he could have been making millions in the MLB years ago.  I digress.  I just see him looking like a “rookie” this weekend at inoppurtune times.  Final score in Atlanta: 31-28 (Atlanta).  Check back later on today for my New England vs. Baltimore prediction.  Enjoy the games on Sunday!