Things I Got Right (And Wrong)

So we're about halfway through the NFL season and it's time now to boost my ego, but mainly show my humility.

THINGS I GOT RIGHT

Dressing up as Kenny Powers for Halloween

Actual Football
- Liking the Kansas City Chiefs. On my two part podcast I said Chiefs would be second in their division. While they probably would win it, I was on board the Kansas City bandwagon WAY before everyone else was. At a time where everybody was picking the Oakland Raiders to be good and finish behind the Chargers, I was picking the Chiefs. Part of my Week One slaughter of Cubsfan and TBO was me picking the Chiefs to beat the Chargers at Arrowhead- which they did.

- Liking the Houston Texans. I'm still not 100% convinced they'll make the playoffs (although I like them a lot) I did however predict their Week One domination of the Colts.

- Liking the phrase: I'm a man! I'm 40!

Fantasy Football
Players I Said To Stay Away From And You Should Have
- Ryan Matthews
- Jahvid Best
- CJ Spiller
- Ronny Cedeno
- Shonn Green
- Derrick Mason
- NYJ Receivers

Free Agent Pick Ups I Told You About
- Brandon Lloyd (Week One)
- Peyton Hillis (Week One)
- Mark Clayton (Week One)
- LeBron James (offseason)
- Michael Vick (duh!)
- Tony Moeaki (Week Two)
- Marshawn Lynch (Week Two)

Guys I Drafted So I Clearly Liked
- LaDanian Tomlinson
- Ahmad Bradshaw
- Frank Gore
- Gaines Adams
- Steve Breaston
- Arain Foster (I'm going to take SOME credit for this because Cubsfan and I got into a fierce bidding war over Foster. But I did lose out on him)

Board Bets
- Liking Eddie Royal over Jabar Gaffney and Demarious Thomas
- Liking Larry Fitzgerald over Randy Moss
- Liking Chocolate Milk over Strawberry Milk
- Liking Arian Foster over Steve Slaton (TBO tried to make this Board Bet with me as well)
- Liking Johnny Knox over Devin Aromashodu

Oh, and right now I'm first in total points (second overall) in the 14 team GOI league and currently leading TBO and Cubsfan in the Pigskin Pick Em league.

THINGS I GOT WRONG

Actual Football

- Thinking the Bears had talent

- Claiming the Indianapolis Colts would miss the playoffs. I did clarify that it was based upon nothing and only because I'm superstitious and thought Super Bowl losers don't make it back to the playoffs, but I looked like I'm about to proven wrong.

- Claiming the 49ers and Cowboys would win their division. I was WAY off on this one considering both team sucks more than a Thai hooker.

Fantasy Football
Guys I Liked But Are Not Very Good (Or Bad Values)
- Chris Johnson
- Michael Turner
- Brandon Marshall
- Applebees' 2 for $20 deal
- Chad Henne
- Tom Brady
- Justin Forsett
- DeAngelo Williams/ Jonathan Stewart

Guys I Was WAY Off Base About
- I ranked Joe Flacco as my number 6 quarterback coming into the year and Ray Rice as my number 3 running back. Both guys suck and are awful values
- I HATED Darren McFadden and even thought Michael Bush would be better.
- I loved Felix Jones and thought he would be the next Ray Rice. Turns out he's shittier than Ray Rice- this year
- Anthony Gonzalez. I wrote an entire post about A-Gon and thought he would be better than both Collie and Garcon.
- Thinking I could actually jump that shark on my water skis.
- Listing only 15 QBs and said if you have to have any other QB you'd be fucked. But QBs I left off the list- Kyle Orton, Josh Freeman, and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Guys I left on the list: Joe Flacco, Kevin Kolb, Chad Henne.
- I said that Phillip Rivers will probably not get his numbers with no legit wide out. Turns out he's on pace to destroy Dan Marino's single season passing yards record.
- Tellings fans (and doing so myself) to bench Patriots Randy Moss against Darelle Revis and the Jets for Seattle's Mike Williams.

Board Bets
- Thinking Larry Fitzgerald will finish inside the top 10 among wide outs
- Thinking Joe Flacco would be a top 8 QB, that Kevin Kolb would be a top 10 QB, and that Chad Henne would be a top 15 QB
- Thinking Anthony Gonzalez would get more receiving yards than Pierre Garcon
- Thinking Chris Johnson would be better than Adrian Peterson
- Thinking Tom Brady could put up better fantasy numbers than either P. Manning, Rodgers, or Brees.
- Thinking Jonathan Stewart would be better than LeSean McCoy

A Reggie Bush Rant

The original title was "A Quick Reggie Bush Rant" but after seeing how much I've typed, I had to delete the 'quick' part.

Much has been made this year about the New Orleans offense. This year the Saints rank 18th in points per game. Right below the Joe Flacco led Ravens and right above the Ryan Fitzpatrick led Bills. With Drew Brees and the wide out talent this team has, how the hell are they only 18th?

Well, ESPN has the answer- the lack of Reggie Bush. They claim because Reggie Bush is such an explosive talent that defenses have to account for him whenever he's on the field. But with him out due to injury, defenses can focus more on Brees, send more guys back in coverage which messes up Drew Brees. To help ESPN prove their point, they show one play in which Reggie Bush is in the game and how the defense is set up and reacts. Then they cut right to another play a few weeks later (sans Bush) and the opposing team has a better defense for the Saints. Two plays to prove their point.

My reaction:
WHAT!? REGGIE BUSH IS NOT A GOOD FOOTBALL PLAYER. THIS LOGIC DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. THIS IS BY THE FAR ONE OF THE STUPIDEST THINGS NFL ANALYSTS HAVE SAID! THIS ANGERS ME GREATLY. WHY ARE WE YELLING?

I will concede a few things. 1) Reggie Bush does have great athleticism and talent. 2) On any given play, Bush does have the capability to take the ball and score a touchdown. 3) Reggie Bush was healthy in the year and now he's injured. 4) He was a great college running back.

Now here's my retort. First, on any given play, ANY skill player has the potential to score a long touchdown. Thomas Jones proved that last weekend with a 70 yard run. Matt Forte has this ability. But who cares, they are still an NFL offensive player. I'm pretty sure teams aren't shaking in the boots whenever Matt Forte has the ball. Yet he still has this amazing ability to be awesome in open space.

The main thing that ESPN is overlooking is that the Saints BEST running back- Pierre Thomas- is also injured. Both Bush and Thomas are out leaving the Brandon Jackson-esque Chris Ivory in to play. And even comparing Ivory to Jackson is an insult to Jackson.

The same two shots ESPN uses for Bush- I bet they could also use for Pierre Thomas. Plus, I'm pretty sure the rest of the league has caught up with Reggie Bush. They are fully aware after that four plus years, he doesn't nearly produce the same as when he was in college. I'm pretty sure that when a team is looking at film, they notice Pierre Thomas is the better running back. Throughout Thomas' entire career in NO, he has proven to be the better running back.

I agree that not having a legitimate running game does hurt Drew Brees and his ability to score points. I agree the lack of a running threat not only hurt play action plays (and let's be honest, the only reason teams run nowadays is to set up the play action) but the overall passing offense. But Reggie Bush alone does not constitute a legitimate running game.

And by the way, it's not like Reggie Bush has been the picture of health in his NFL career. He started, 8, 10, 8, 9 games respectively and he's only played in all 16 games once- his rookie year. The Saints have played without Reggie Bush before and yet still have had a prolific offense.

I still think ESPN has it in their heads that Reggie Bush is still the Heisman talent he was while at USC. During Bush's final year, ESPN jerked off to Reggie like what Kim used to do. (I apologize for the lewd and vulgar). But that praise should have declined at this point in Bush's career.

ESPN's logic just does not add up. The have a premise: Reggie Bush is injured and not playing. This is true. They have a conclusion: The Saints are not scoring that many points. This is also true. But to say Statement A is the reason for Statement B is the quintessential logical fallacy. I agree Reggie Bush is a lot better than any back the Saints can currently start, but I refuse to believe that he alone is the reason for the Saints mediocre offensive play.

Ron Turner Is Fired!

SHA NA NA NA

SHA NA NA NA

Don't be afraid to sing along now!

SHA NA NA NA

HEY HEY GOODBYE!

Today Ron Turner along with essentially everybody with "offensive" in their title in the organization was just sacked today. GOI has long advocated for the firing of Turner and it is glorious that the day has come. I'm still worried that the shitty McCaskeys will just go ahead and hire another shitty coordinator, but Turner's firing is a step in the right direction.

This firing was also bittersweet because Turner was the only one fired. As much as we all wanted Lovie Smith gone, we all never should have expected it because he has a huge backloaded contract and he was owed a shit ton of money. But there is absolutely no reason to keep Jerry Angelo on the team. Yes, the Cutler trade was awesome, but the reason for this teams lack of talent is mainly because of Angelo. He is awful at drafting and guys like Greg Olson, Chris Williams, and Tommie Harris are all first round picks that are just average at best. He gave Urlacher a lot of money recently and all Urlacher has done since that contract was be crappy or sit on the sidelines.

Many expected Rod Marinelli to be promoted to defensive coordinator because it is clear that Lovie can not coach this defense but that didn't happen either.

This organization is awful and while they took a step in the right direction today, they NEED to overhaul this entire team if they want long term success.

Albert Pujols is a baseball god

Not that anyone needed reminding of this fact, but Albert Pujols is really, really good at baseball. However, let's depart from Fangraph's quality analysis of what Albert has done this year in terms of WAR, OPS and WPA and look at something else that he's doing. As of this writing, Albert Pujols has 85 extra base hits (XBHs) -- 47 HR, 37 2B, 1 3B. Only twelve hitters in the history of the game have ever hit 100+ XBHs in a single season. Only three people (Albert Belle 1995, Todd Helton 2000 and Barry Bonds 2001) have accomplished this feat in the past 60 years. One of those people (allegedly) was on steroids, one of them played in a baseball field that was on steroids and the other was a huge asshole. Albert Pujols, by contrast, is characterized by pure talent (dual MVPs in his eight year career) and humanitarianism (Roberto Clemente Award winner in 2008). Let's just hope that Pujols has never juiced.

What do you think? Will Pujols get 15+ XBHs over the Cardinals' final 21 games?

Interesting Factoid: Albert Pujols only played baseball for one season while attending community college. During that season, he turned an unassisted triple play and hit a grand slam in the same game.