Football Blitz II

SSFFL

Let's kick off with some premier fantasy football league coverage:

Since week 1, Amanda and Andy have each recorded their first SSFFL league win! Amanda has racked up two, actually, defeating two heavy weights in the Stripes division.

It's early, but the cream is already starting to rise to the top. The Stars division is led by Zach and Eric, and the Stripes are led by Jamie!

Biggest surprises thus far (and yes, it's still early!):

Positive surprise: Amanda sitting at 2-1

Negative surprise: Becky at 0-3 (Between this season and last, Becky has really taken some close losses)

Flacco or Flucco?

In part 2 of our Flacco or Flucco saga, we will quickly investigate a few pertinent stats.

Flucco's total QB rating is 48.6 through his first three games. 

(Remember, total QBR is a relatively new statistic that gives a more accurate measure of a QB's performance than simply the QB rating. Total QBR ranges from 0-100, and you can find a much more detailed explanation here.)

Flucco ranks 20th in total QBR. 20th. Are we surprised? No. But if you look at his salary and believe the media hype surrounding him, you'd expect him to be in the Top 5. I'm not sure who the sports broadcasters were watching last year, but this is pretty typical Flucco performance.

If you look at your standard QB rating, you'll find Flucco ranks 24th. He ranks 17th in completion percentage, 19th in passing yards, 23rd in passings TDs, and 27th in yards per attempt. 

Stay tuned. There's still plenty of season remaining for Flucco to rebound...

Buckeye Football!

I almost waited until the next Football Blitz to talk about the Buckeyes because OSU has only played Florida A&M since the previous Blitz, and the Buckeyes have a HUGE game tonight against Wisconsin... But, how can you not mention a 76-0 win? Sub-par competition? Sure. But every big school plays some pretty lousy competition sometime throughout the season. However, it's not every week your "backup" (?) QB throws for a school record 6 TDs.

The biggest question surrounding the Buckeyes is what to do at the QB position. Does Miller automatically reclaim his spot? Or does Meyer roll with with hot hand in Guiton? My concern is Miller coming off the bench for the past 2 weeks cold and playing some stiff competition. Will he be ready to jump into game speed against the Buckeye's (most likely) second toughest game of the season? Meyer has listed both QBs as co-starters, so it will be interesting to see how he handles the quarterbacks. 

Football Blitz I

Hi everyone, this is the first "Football Blitz" post. Football Blitz will feature my quick take on several unrelated football topics from the NCAA and/or NFL. Enjoy! (A side note: I've been working on this post for a little while, but I haven't been able to actually sit down and complete it until  recent. So, unfortunately, some of these topics are a little dated).

Buckeye Football:

The Ohio State University opened up the season against Buffalo. The Buckeyes gave up three TD's, one coming from a pick-six. I was particularly interested to see how the Buckeyes' defense would perform after losing so much talent from last year. In my opinion, the defense could use some work. It was defense's live game action, I know, but giving up two touchdowns to Buffalo doesn't exactly thrill me. The defense will need to improve for OSU to live up to the lofty expectations of this season... and I believe it will. As a whole, I did not think the Buckeyes played up to the #2 ranking they have been given. However, I do think there is enough room for improvement to earn that ranking in the upcoming games.

Delayed Post Update: Buckeyes beat SDSU 42-7 and Cal 52-34. The Buckeye defense was sub-par in the Cal game... giving up 34 points to this team is unacceptable. Since I first started this post, the Buckeyes slid to #4 in the AP poll. This unit is not playing like a defense of a Top 10 team. We haven't seen a consistent Buckeye D since Tressel left. I hope this changes soon, because OSU will need it to reach its full potential.

The Manziel Circus:

As almost everyone knows by now, Johnny Manziel signed thousands of autographs on numerous occasions. It has been alleged he was paid six figures for these signings, which would be a violation of NCAA rules. There was much speculation surrounding Texas A&M, prior to the start of the college football season, on whether they should or would play Manziel, in the event he was found ineligible by the NCAA, forcing A&M to forfeit any games in which he played. That speculation was put to an end prior to Texas A&M's first game when the NCAA ruled, based on Manziel's testimony to NCAA officials, that Manziel only contributed to someone else's profit based on his signatures (which is a lesser violation of the NCAA rules). He was suspended for the first half of A&M's first game. The NCAA said that there was no evidence that he was paid for the autographs, but if more evidence came to light, the NCAA could alter the ruling.

This was the right call. Even though many sources say he was paid, and common sense and my gut tell me he definitely was, the NCAA needs definitive proof to suspend a player (or rule him completely ineligible as a college athlete). A penalty of significant magnitude requires a certain amount of concrete proof that we just don't have without one of the autograph agents ratting Manziel out.

Flacco or Flucco?
Is Joe Flacco (Raven's QB) a great quarterback, or does he just fluke into wins? Definitely the latter. Flucco finished the 2012 season outside the Top 20 in QB rating. So how did he lead his team to a Super Bowl championship last year? Admittedly, he did improve his play in the post-season. Somewhat. However, the biggest reason of Flucco's success is his receivers bailing him out on terrible passes. Anquan Boldin in particular. I can't count how many times Joe passed over an open Ray Rice outlet pass for a guaranteed first down in favor of an ill-fated heave down the field to a double (or triple) covered Boldin or Jacoby Jones. Pass incomplete. Drive over. Ray Rice can no longer earn points for his fantasy owners. Time and time again we've seen this. Unfortunately, his fantastic receivers bailed him out enough to keep enabling this behavior.

After winning the Super Bowl, Flucco signed a monster contract, worth well over $100 million. Is he worth that much? No. Not even close. But, the market demand worked out in his favor. Who else would be the Ravens QB if he walked?

SSFFL
Of course the Watercooler provides coverage of the Stars and Stripes Fantasy Football League! Is it, after all, the premier fantasy football league in the United States (and therefore, world). In week 1, Amanda and Andy played in their first SSFFL game. They had tough tasks, Amanda and Andy taking on Ashley and myself, respectively. I had a solid win over Andy, but Ashley went nuts and poor Amanda didn't stand a chance. Other winners in week 1 include: Brian (def Becky), Eric (def Dan), Zach (def Adam), and Jamie (def Snyder).

NFL Preseason Picks

The NFL is back! The first game is tonight and I'll kick off the NFL season by picking the division results,  playoff teams, conference champions, and the Super Bowl winner for this season. Just don't laugh too hard after the season plays out and my predictions go up in smoke.

Division Result and Playoff Teams:

(Playoff Teams underlined)

AFC North

1) Cincinnati

2) Baltimore

3) Pittsburgh

4) Cleveland

AFC East

1) New England

2) Miami

3) Buffalo

4) NY Jets

AFC South

1) Indianapolis

2) Houston

3) Tennessee

4) Jacksonville

AFC West

1) Denver

2) Kansas City

3) San Diego

4) Oakland

NFC North

1) Green Bay

2) Chicago

3) Detroit

4) Minnesota

NFC East

1) Washington

2) Dallas

3) NY Giants

4) Philadelphia

NFC South

1) New Orleans

2) Atlanta

3) Tampa Bay

4) Carolina

NFC West

1) San Francisco

2) Seattle

3) Arizona

4) St. Louis

Playoff Predictions:

AFC Champion: Denver

NFC Champion: Green Bay

Super Bowl Champion: Denver