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| Tuesday, 7-Jun-2011 02:12 |
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NFL Top 100 Debate: Behind Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger Is the
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The quarterback position is one that many define with skills like accuracy, arm strength and rushing ability.
Players like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning stand alone at the top with their superior arms and untouchable stat lines.
On the other side, a dual-threat quarterback like Michael Vick can change a game with one run or one throw, making him a very appealing player to watch.
Recently, the NFL Network's Top 100 Players list named Ben Roethlisberger as the 41st best player in the NFL, and that ranking is way too low.
Roethlisberger is a 29-year-old Ohio native who graduated from the University of Miami at Ohio.
The Steelers quarterback made an instant impact in the NFL, guiding his team to a 15-1 record and an appearance in the conference championship game that year.
From 2004 on, Roethlisberger became one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, and when the game was on the line, the Steelers were a good bet (and still are, with Roethlisberger taking snaps) to win the game.
A career 63 percent completion percentage shows that Roethlisberger is an efficient quarterback, but the numbers only tell half of No. 7's story.
"Big Ben" has a TD:INT ratio of 144:86 for his career, and boasts good stats across the board for both his career and his 2010 season (in which he had a 17:5 ratio of TD:INT).
Look past the numbers, however, and find the reasons why Ben Roethlisberger is only second to Tom Brady as the best quarterback in the NFL.
Fans are making too much of sexual assault allegations against Roethlisberger—he is a football player, and people pay to watch him on the field, not off of it.
Don't let his indiscretions mislead you, for the Steelers quarterback is the game's second best when it comes to ranking the top quarterbacks in the NFL.
Tom Brady has cemented himself atop the list with his "Super" success, and after that, no one but Roethlisberger deserves the distinction as No. 2.
Peyton Manning has only won one Super Bowl and has become less and less clutch over the last few years.
Some may say that Roethlisberger's Super Bowls can be attributed to great defense, but the Colts played insanely good defense on their way to giving Manning his first and only title.
Roethlisberger has two Super Bowl rings, and when put up against any other quarterback above him on the Top 100 list, he has more rings.
The NFL is trying to say that they'd rather put Philip Rivers under center than Roethlisberger, but that makes no sense—Rivers has no rings.
NFL, you're trying to say that you'd rather have Rivers under center to lead you to victory in the fourth quarter?
You'd rather have Drew Brees, who couldn't keep the ball out of the opposition's hands?
You'd rather have Peyton Manning, who got erratic and barely kept the ship upright when he lost his tight end and his third receiver?
You'd rather have Michael Vick, who has never even won a Super Bowl?
It can't be right, but here is the Top 100 list, telling us that it's so.
Roethlisberger has no offensive line outside of Maurkice Pouncey, yet he finds a way to evade defenders, throw passes from every body angle possible and make every throw imaginable.
The bottom line with Roethlisberger is that he always finds a way.
He found a way, despite iffy numbers, to win a Super Bowl against the tough Seahawks in 2005, and he found a way to lead the game-winning drive against the Arizona Cardinals while Ken Whisenhunt watched in horror.
He made another Super Bowl this year, and he only got past the Jets by finding a way to extend a play and get a clutch first down to seal the game at the end.
Roethlisberger doesn't exactly have the best receiving corps, with a glorified slot receiver in Hines Ward and a vertical threat Mike Wallace (whom Roethlisberger helped make a star).
However, the Steelers quarterback makes things happen, and when the line breaks down or his receivers aren't open, the play is never over.
The Steelers win and the Steelers win in bunches, thanks to Roethlisberger's competitiveness and persistence.
The quarterback knows what it takes to win games, and he is no stranger to the Lombardi Trophy, something that many quarterbacks who are above him on the list aren't able to say (Brees, Rodgers and Manning have one ring, while Vick and Rivers have none).
It is strange, then, that Roethlisberger falls behind all of these quarterbacks as the best signal-caller in the NFL.
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| Friday, 6-May-2011 08:00 |
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NBA Playoffs 2011: A Look at the 10 Best Playoff Performances so
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Star players have stepped up and showed that they know how to perform on the biggest stage. Star performances have helped teams win not only games, but series as well.
However, we have also seen good performances result in losses for some teams.
Great performances will continue the rest of this postseason, so let's look at the top 10 up to this point.
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| Saturday, 30-Apr-2011 02:56 |
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NFL draft: LSU OT Joseph Barksdale picked by Oakland in third ro
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Baton Rouge - LSU offensive tackle Joseph Barksdale was the fourth LSU player picked in the third round of the NFL draft when Oaklan took him with the 28th pick. and 92 overall.
Barksdale, who is 6-feet-5 and 325 pounds, was a two-year starter for LSU. He played right tackle as a junior but moved to left tackle for his senior season.
He joined linebacker Kelvin Sheppard (Buffalo), running back Stevan Ridley (New England) and defensive tackle Drake Nevis (Indianapolis) as LSU draftees in the third round. He's the fifth LSU player take in the draft overall as cornerback Patrick Peterson was taken with the No. 5 pick overall by Arizona.
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| Monday, 25-Apr-2011 06:56 |
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Jamal Crawford leads Atlanta Hawks past Orlando Magic | NBA play
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For most of the game, the Atlanta Hawks struggled to make free throws and labored to put away the Orlando Magic.
But with the game on the line at the line, Joe Johnson came through.
Jamal Crawford scored 25 points for the Hawks and Johnson made four big free throws in the final 20 seconds to preserve an 88-85 victory over the Magic.
Atlanta has a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round Eastern Conference series and can wrap it up in Orlando on Tuesday night.
Crawford, a graduate of Rainier Beach High School in Seattle, played a major role in the Hawks' two home victories.
He scored a game-high 23 points — including a 26-foot bank shot with 5.7 seconds left — in Game 3. In Game 4, Crawford made 10 of 18 shots and added a team-high six assists.
"Jamal is playing with unbelievable confidence. Everything he throws up, he knows it's going in," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We're at the opposite end of the spectrum. We have a lot of guys throwing it up, and they have no idea if it's going in."
The Hawks made a mere 12 of 20 free throws, yet all was forgiven when Johnson knocked down the ones that really mattered.
"We rely on Joe and Jamal to get it done in tough situations," Atlanta forward Josh Smith said. "They answered the bell again."
Center Dwight Howard led the Magic with 29 points and 17 rebounds, though his game was tainted by eight turnovers.
Howard bantered with the crowd in his hometown, even coming over to the press table to exchange barbs with a couple of trash-talking fans in the third quarter.
"You're the biggest whiner in the league," one of the fans said.
"You wanna come out here and play me?" Howard responded. "I'm averaging 33 points a game. Just keep drinking your beer."
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| Friday, 22-Apr-2011 07:50 |
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NFL draft: In search of an outside linebacker
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For the second straight year, outside linebacker appears to be an area of need for the Green Bay Packers.
That doesn’t mean general manager Ted Thompson will select one in next week’s NFL draft.
He didn’t last year, instead choosing a different approach to try to bolster the spot opposite star Clay Matthews.
Finding an outside linebacker to fit into the 3-4 defense sometimes requires teams that use that scheme to get creative. That’s what Thompson did last year, when he signed three undrafted free agent defensive linemen with the intentions of converting them into outside linebackers.
Undrafted players are long shots to make the 53-man roster as it is, but Tim Knicky, John Russell and Frank Zombo faced the additional challenge of trying to make it at a position they weren’t used to playing.
Knicky, who played defensive end at Stephen F. Austin, was released last June.
Russell, who played defensive tackle at Wake Forest, was released a month later before the start of training camp.
And then there was Zombo, who played defensive end at Central Michigan and beat all the odds with the Packers. Not only did Zombo make it through training camp and earn a spot on the roster, he ended up starting opposite Matthews part of the season after Brad Jones was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.
“It’s not like they knew they had a diamond in the rough there in Frank Zombo,” said a scout from an AFC team. “But he ended up being an outstanding player. ... It’s such a projection.
“There were some things that you saw on film with Frank Zombo in college but really not enough to say he was going to be the player he was. If anybody says he was going to be the player that he was this year for the Packers, they’re only fooling themselves. But there’s no doubt that he has the intangibles that made him into that player.”
Part of the reason the outside linebacker position is so difficult to project is because so few college teams use 3-4 schemes.
Justin Houston, one of the top outside linebacker prospects in this year’s draft, is a rarity because he played in a 3-4 scheme at Georgia.
Brooks Reed, on the other hand, played defensive end at Arizona but is being projected as an outside linebacker in the NFL. Ditto for Dontay Moch, who played defensive end at Nevada but doesn’t have the size (6-foot-1, 248 pounds) to play that position at the next level.
“You still go by, is the guy a good football player?” Thompson said during his pre-draft news conference Thursday at Lambeau Field. “There are position specifics that you would like: ideal height, ideal weight, strength numbers, athletic ability and things like that. But there’s enough cross training between the end of the college season, you go through the combine, you go through the pro days, you do all that, from an athletic standpoint, you can see that.”
Texas A&M’s Von Miller is by far the best outside linebacker prospect in the draft. He might be the best player overall and likely will go in the top five picks.
The next tier includes Houston and UCLA’s Akeem Ayers, but both of those players likely will be gone by the time it’s the Packers’ turn to close the first round with the 32nd overall selection.
Some mock drafts have Reed going to the Packers.
“The outside linebacker group is good,” Pittsburgh Steelers director of football operations Kevin Colbert told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. “There’s more available to us than has been in the past.”
The group of inside linebackers isn’t as good. It’s unlikely any of them will be selected in the first round, and the best of the bunch, Illinois’ Martez Wilson, may be best suited to play on the outside.
Two former University of Wisconsin linebackers will hope to hear their name called next week. But Culmer St. Jean, a middle linebacker, and Blake Sorensen, who plays on the outside, likely will go undrafted and end up in camps as free agents.
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| Thursday, 21-Apr-2011 03:11 |
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What new NFL schedule means for 2012 NHL Winter Classic
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Whether or not the NFL has a 2011 season remains to be seen, as the players and owners continue to work towards a compromise after a lockout began on March 12.
But as that labor situation lingers on, the NFL released its 2011 schedule Tuesday night; and since it came hours after the NHL and NBC announced their new mega television pact, the serious debate can begin over the 2012 Winter Classic's location and participants.
As much as every NHL team wants to host or at least be involved in a Winter Classic, it's like what Kevin Allen of USA Today wrote earlier this year: Playing on Jan. 1 should be for an exclusive club, especially with NBC having a say in who's involved. Figure on the typical NBC Sunday "Game of the Week" rotation of the teams until others show they have the resume to make themselves a national draw in the ratings.
While the Minnesota Wild versus the Dallas Stars might bring out some nostalgia among diehard puckheads, NBC wouldn't go near that for risk of low ratings.
So with the new NFL schedule released, who's out and who's potentially in for the next Winter Classic?
We know that the NHL needs at least seven days to prepare the venue and build the rink. That immediately knocks out places such as the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and Wysh's dream, Lambeau Field in Wisconsin, as those venues are hosting NFL games on Jan. 1.
Yankee Stadium, once again, is out because it will be in Year 2 of its four-year agreement to host the Pinstripe Bowl. You would think when New York hosts a Winter Classic either Yankee Stadium or potentially New Meadowlands would be the venue. CitiField in Queens doesn't have the marketability of a Yankee Stadium or the 80,000-plus seating capacity.
That leaves venues like "The Big House" and Spartan Stadium in Michigan, Beaver Stadium at Penn State and Soldier Field in Chicago among the favorites for the 2012 Winter Classic in our eyes. The college regular season ends in late-November, giving the NHL adequate time to prepare the stadium and get the rink set up, and the Chicago Bears play in Minnesota on Jan. 1, leaving the possibility of the Blackhawks being involved in another outdoor game.
And if there is no NFL season, thus no "Sunday Night Football" on NBC, could that mean another prime time Winter Classic? Otherwise, the game would more than likely move to Monday, Jan. 2 so as to not go up against the slate of NFL games. Are you ready for some "Monday Night Hockey"?
While there may not even be football in 2011, that decision would need to be made by the NFL and its players union by the time the NHL releases its 2011-12 schedule in late-June. If the 2011 NFL season is still up in the air at that point, the NHL can't bank on whether or not a possible venue would be available.
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| Wednesday, 20-Apr-2011 07:08 |
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2011 NFL Draft: Dallas Cowboys 7 Round Mock Draft 4.0
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It's now less than two weeks until the draft and things are starting to become more clear. Things can still change from now until then, but not by much. Pro day season has ended and now we know a little more about who the Cowboys may be targeting.
There are some changes from my last mock draft to reflect some of the different players the Cowboys brought in for pre draft visits.
Here's my take on how things could happen on draft day.
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| Tuesday, 19-Apr-2011 06:05 |
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Medical consultant Richard Ellenbogen sees progress in NFL's res
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A puzzling decision to let Philadelphia linebacker Stewart Bradley back into the season opener led to significant improvement in the detection and treatment of concussions during the rest of the 2010 season, a key NFL medical consultant said Monday.
Dr. Richard Ellenbogen cited the way concussions to two Seattle Seahawks — tight end John Carlson and defensive back Marcus Trufant — were handled in a 35-24 playoff loss at Chicago as proof the league had taken major steps to ensure such injuries are treated properly.
Ellenbogen is the chairman of the University of Washington's department of neurological surgery.
Asked if the incident with a woozy Bradley being allowed back on the field in Philadelphia spurred the improvement, Ellenbogen said in a conference call, "Had that not happened, we may not have had the NFL sideline examination (for concussions) this year."
The league has standardized those examinations for all 32 teams. Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the league's head, neck and spine committee, said such standardization "will protect against exactly what happened in Philadelphia."
During the Eagles' 27-20 loss to Green Bay, quarterback Kevin Kolb got a concussion. While Kolb was being examined, Bradley also was injured and had staggered off the field. Yet Bradley soon was back playing before being removed for the rest of the game.
"That was the exception and not the rule," Ellenbogen said before praising the way injuries to Carlson and Trufant were handled Jan. 16.
Carlson suffered a concussion and was carted off in a situation handled "perfectly," Ellenbogen said.
When Trufant was hurt later in the game, Ellenbogen said, "team physicians and professional athletic trainers were all over that."
"Remember, when someone is concussed on the field, there are other doctors and trainers watching the game," Ellenbogen said. "So when one player gets concussed, we have others who are watching to ensure the situation in Philadelphia will not occur."
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| Monday, 18-Apr-2011 09:37 |
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Iowa Football: Spring Game Report Card
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One of my favorite "tweets" yesterday came from Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. It read:
"Iowa's spring game. Not spring and not a game."
While the cold weather definitely was a shock, the fact that's Iowa's spring game amounted more to a practice has become commonplace under coach Kirk Ferentz.
It's hard to gauge much from the "game," but Ferentz did reveal where players in position battles stand following spring practice and it was a chance for some players to show their talent and potential.
Here's how the Hawkeyes graded out in their spring game/scrimmage/practice.
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| Saturday, 16-Apr-2011 06:42 |
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Five for Friday: Sooner draft deadline good for some, not player
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<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/">http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/</a>
Last offseason, I spent Fridays answering questions from readers about various topics in college basketball. Because I'm nothing if not consistent (or more accurately, OCD), I'll do the same this offseason, and I'll start right now.
Here's my weekly Five for Friday column.
1. Is it good to move the date on which underclassmen must decide whether they're in or out of the NBA Draft up to April 10?
It's good for me because I write about college basketball and thus have to worry with these things. At the moment, the deadline is May 8. So I have to worry until May 8. But if the NCAA board of directors later this month endorses a policy already passed by the legislative council, that date will move to April 10, and that means I would be done worrying with who is and isn't returning to school just a week after the national title game.
So I would love it (for selfish reasons).
And the move would be great for college coaches.
But it's a pretty crummy deal for underclassmen on the fence because it'll rush the process, and it's proof that the ACC coaches who proposed the new date are more interested in knowing how next season's roster will look as soon as possible than they are in truly helping their players make well-informed decisions. That's a bad message to send, but I'm not surprised. The NBA has the one-and-done rule because the NBA believes that's what's best for the NBA, and now the NCAA is close to making underclassmen decide their futures the week after the title game because the NCAA believes that's what's best for the NCAA. In other words, we have two billion-dollar entities doing what's best for them with little regard for anything else. I think that's called the American Way.
2. Are you surprised non-BCS coaches keep rejecting offers from BCS schools?
Not at all because some of the desirable non-BCS coaches -- guys like VCU's Shaka Smart, Butler's Brad Stevens, Memphis' Josh Pastner, Xavier's Chris Mack, etc. -- are now making nearly (or in many cases much more than) $1 million a year. So they're well-compensated and comfortable. Why run from that for a mid-level or lower-level job in a power conference that could have you fired in three years?
Yes, three years.
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Used to be a new coach would get five years (or at least four) before a school would give up on him. But coaches are now getting fired after three losing seasons (Kentucky, of course, got Billy Gillispie after two, but that's a different deal), and it's causing people to be more careful with their career choices. It's better to make great money for 15 years than it is to make super-great money for three. That's the new mindset, and it's a wise one.
3. Why won't Miami hire Kansas State's Frank Martin?
Because Miami is stupid.
4. Will Arizona's Derrick Williams be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft?
Perhaps ... but I would take Kyrie Irving. The one-and-done point guard from Duke was basically the consensus No. 1 pick with NBA scouts in November and December, and I wouldn't let an unfortunate toe injury move me off him. Williams could be a future star, but I think Irving definitely is one. So I would go with Irving No. 1 and then put Williams, Kentucky's Enes Kanter and North Carolina's Harrison Barnes (provided he's in the draft, which remains uncertain) at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 in some order to be determined after workouts.
5. You OK with UCLA's Ben Howland reportedly close to hiring an AAU coach from Atlanta?
I'm OK with anything within the rules, and this is within the rules. Honestly, I don't know why more coaches don't do it. Success in college basketball is rooted in recruiting, and if I were a high-major coach my staff would feature one assistant to help me coach and two player-getters, and if one of them had a direct link to a prominent AAU program, well, that would be terrific. So if UCLA (an Adidas school) hires Korey McCray from the Atlanta Celtics (an Adidas program), it'll be viewed as more smart than shady in my eyes.
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I've never pretended this sport is anything other than what it is, and what it is, is a sport where men make millions of dollars when they win and get fired when they don't. The best way to ensure winning is to get talented players, and the best way to get talented players is to create advantages. Best I can tell, Howland is in the process of creating a nice advantage that could lead to Class of 2011 standout Kevin Ware -- a Georgia native and former Tennessee recruit who is now back on the market -- enrolling at UCLA in time for next season. If I had just lost Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee to the NBA Draft, I would almost certainly do the same thing.
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