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Never imagined we'd see two Wild Card teams going at it in the World Series, but here we are. Representing the American League is the Kansas City Royals who have answered a 29-year playoff drought with an 8-0 record en route to the World Series. For the National League there is the scrappy San Francisco Giants that keep things close and use timely hits to win. The key to this series for me lies in the Giants ability to slow down the Royals speed around the base paths, something that is easier said than done. It is also crucial that San Francisco gets the offense going against the Kansas City starters, because once they hand things over to Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland in the late innings it's game over. I've picked against the Royals and their small ball strategy all postseason, I can't keep making that mistake. I don't think they stay undefeated but I'm taking KC in 6.
Ty-
Royals Royals Royals. I said the Royals were going to win the World Series two weeks ago. They are red hot and there is just something magical happening with this team. That's not taking anything away from the Giants. That team scares me enough to reconsider my pick because they are used to being here and used to playing in this moment so you can't discredit that. I think the Giants will give the Royals their first loss in the series but the Royals will take the series in 6 games.
2. Peyton Manning broke Brett Favre's career passing touchdown record on Sunday Night, throwing touchdown numbers 509 and later on 510 of his career. There is a lot of debate over where Manning sits atop the all-time great quarterback poll, with only one Super Bowl ring, where do you put him? Ty-
Manning is a top 3 quarterback all time. As much as people want to put the blame on Peyton for his team performing poorly in the playoffs, I think people are too hard on him. Football is a team sport. People love to talk about Tom Brady's 3 Super Bowl wins and always ignore the fact that the team had great defenses those years. Give me video game 2007-2010 Tom Brady anyday over 2001-2004 Brady. The problem wih Peyton is that he is too great for his own good. His teams always lean too much on him and not on being a solid all around team. Last year the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl with a pretty awful defense. It was almost no surprise the Seahawks torched them. So you have to put Manning as a top 3 greatest because he has been nothing but crazy consistent and has maaybe even gotten better with old age.
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It really is hard to compare quarterbacks from different generations to pick just one that is the best of all-time. Peyton Manning's stats are benefited by the fact that nowadays offenses revolve around spreading it out and throwing it all over the field. Guys like Dan Marino, Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas didn't play in offenses like that. Still, Manning's greatness can't go unnoticed. What he's done is phenomenal. I'm not one to judge a players greatness by the number of rings they have because winning a championship takes an entire team, not just one great player. I'm sure if you asked Peyton if he would trade all the stats and accolades for more rings he'd say yes in an instant. That is the ultimate reward for all NFL players but the nature of the game makes it hard to achieve that goal. To debate who the best quarterback of all-time is though, it really depends on what you're looking at. If your preference is to count rings, stupid but still valid, then Peyton Manning certainly isn't the best. If it's the clutch factor maybe it's Tom Brady for you. If it's greatest skill set probably Marino. There isn't really a right or wrong answer. For me I like to consider the full package. Personally I think Brady is a better quarterback than Manning in terms of skill and ability to thrive in high pressure situations. Manning has always had some of the best weapons in the league around him, which benefited him immensely. The numbers don't lie though and Manning has done spectacular things and holds a ton of record already. If he's not the best of all-time he is in the top 5 without hesitation.
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I know Kobe is coming off of serious injuries, getting toward the tale end of his career, so on and so forth, but I find it hard to believe that there are 39 players in the league better than him. I think in the 20's somewhere would of been more appropriate. Sure, he's older, he's coming off injuries, but he's Kobe Bryant. That dude has got the heart of 1,000 lions. Maybe his legs are breaking down but that jumper isn't. He will still score in the 20's every game and with the Lakers looking like a weak team as it is, he's going to be their go to guy. One of the players ESPN put ahead of him was Rajon Rondo and there is no way Rondo is better than Kobe Bryant.
Ty-
I understand people love Kobe Bryant and just based off of his legacy I probably would have ranked Kobe as the 30th best player. But I can easily be talked into someone thinking that Kobe is the 40th best player. The reason is because we don't know what Kobe is going to be this year. He sat out all last year so it is hard to guage if he can be the old Kobe after suffering a serious injury like that this late in his career. Nobody doesn't believe in Kobe. They just think that Kobe have to prove it to everybody that he is still Kobe.
4. After blowing out the Pittsburgh Steelers a week ago, the Cleveland Browns fell to the 0-6 Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday and looked lost. We all thought the Browns were all turning the corner and becoming a playoff contender, who do you think they are?
Ty-
I think there is an unrealistic expectation we apply to teams that play Jacksonville. Yes most teams have blown them out but You have to think that the team would have some pride. Coming into the season I did not think the Jaguars would be as bad as they have been. The Jags have talent and they play in the NFL too. So maybe it is crazy to just blame the Browns. Sure the Browns might have been guilty of taking the Jags lightly but any team can lose in this league. I think the Browns are still a decent team if you look at the rest of the year. They just aren't a team with pedigree and used to taking care of business against teams they should beat. Probably because they are used to be that team that other people handled business against.
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In the words of Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were." I knew it had to be too good to be true. The Browns came out against the Steelers with something to prove. They're also division rivals so they know how to play each other well so I'm not surprised that they got the better of Pittsburgh last week. Still how do you go from a performance like that, to getting blown out by arguably the worst team in the NFL? It just makes no sense. I process it as the Browns are a little better than the Browns of the past. Quarterback Brian Hoyer is a great story, but I think he's limited in what he can do. He's not a game changing quarterback. Teams had a small sample size to scout him from last year, but after six weeks defenses are starting to figure him out. Defensively I actually thought they'd be one of the best in the league, but they are awful at stopping the run and their pass defense is average. I don't see playoffs for the Browns this year especially after that pitiful performance on Sunday against Jacksonville. Cleveland went from an all-time high to an all-time low in one week.
5. What we learned:
Spencer- The NFC South is terrible.
There is the obvious 1-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who shamefully enough, beat my Pittsburgh Steelers for their lone win. By all accounts they aren't a good team either and will finish in the basement.
Then there is the Carolina Panthers who currently lead the division with a 3-3-1 record, that could easily be 3-4, but only earned a tie because the Cincinnati Bengals missed a field goal in overtime. They're defense is far removed from it's dominance of 2013 and can't stop anyone. On top of that Cam Newton doesn't have the weapons to compete with some of the top offenses in the league.
I guess by default Carolina is going to win the division with probably an 8-7-1 record, which is terrible. Hopefully a team from another division doesn't go 10-6, finish third and miss the playoffs like the Arizona Cardinals did last year. That's tragic honestly.
Guess we'll see what happens but all I know is that the NFC South is the worst division in the NFL right now.
So Robert Griffin III could return to the field as early as next game and the conversation about his job security has changed dramatically.
First in the preseason guys like Joe Theismann thought that Kirk Cousins should have won the job based on Kirks play against backups and people who don't exist in the league anymore. Griffin struggled with the first team offense, although it was overlooked that he was learning a new offense and had to display team chemistry in a short amount of plays.
Then once Washington lost a close game in which there where two fumbles in the Red zone that weren't all Griffins fault. This made Cousins supporter come out a little more. Obviously the next week Griffin got hurt after starting pretty well against Jacksonville and Kirk came in and lit the Jaguars up.
The next week Kirk lit up the Philadelphia Eagles for most of the game and people were talking about him taking RG3's job already. What is forgotten about that game is that Kirk was given the ball at the end of the game in good field position and couldn't get the team a measly 1st down let alone 20-30 yards into field goal range to tie it up.
People overlooked that Cousins had come up short when he needed too. The next few weeks were brutal. Except for maybe the Seahawks game but Kirk proceeded to throw away games that were winnable by turning over the ball multiple times in nearly identical situations. He seemed to have a hard time recovering from his mistakes and moving on as well.
In yesterday's game it was just too much when Cousins threw an interceptions immediately after the Defense got a rare takeaway. Colt McCoy had to be brought in and although Colt didn't do anything spectacular, he didn't lose the game. In fact he lead the team to the win from behind.
Kirk Cousins definitely fit in in Gruden's offense but his problem was his bad decisions within it. Which is a big deal. Sometimes he was even intercepted because of poor location on throws. That is pretty hard to fix for a quarterback. Especially one that isn't good at bouncing back from adversity.
The bottomline now is that Griffin does have to develop in the offense, which was the case entering the season, but most fans have to be okay with going back to a guy they know wont be turnover prone.
Not every loss was Kirks fault either. The defense has to get better and the offensive line is terrible too. Gruden and the front office have to think about surrounding Griffin with talent on the line and defense for the team to thrive in the future. But now the rest of the season is about Griffin's development.
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