Monday Spread Option 01-13-14/ What We Learned Last Week

Colin Kaepernick. "Superman dem' Foes"

1. There is only 2 more weeks of real football and 4 teams left. Who you got in the Superbowl?

Ty-

I guess nobody is really surprised that the four teams left have made it to the conference finals. I mean all the teams that made it to this round were favored in Vegas. The Broncos and Patriots definitely have the history ties. It seems only right that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady meet at least one more time with a Superbowl on the line. Specially with reports that Peyton's future is tied to an offseason neck check up. I am inclined to pick the Broncos to pull this one out because the Broncos have a better team. I can't say im 100 percent confident picking against Tom Brady. But keep in mind that the Patriots haven't won a Superbowl in almost a decade and this Patriots team doesn't seem to be very good.

I have to go with the Seahawks over the Niners as well. Although San Fran is the better overall team, the Seahawks have their number in Seattle. The Niners have lost by a combined 55 points in the last 2 games in Seattle. Something tells me that this is more of a trend than a fluke.

Spencer-
Two great games coming up next weekend, two tough ones to pick for us sports bloggers. Wouldn't have it any other way. You got Brady vs. Manning one more time for a shot at the Super Bowl, and arguably the best rivalry in the game right now in the 49ers and Seahawks. Should be two great games. That being said I'll start with the AFC...We saw these teams play earlier in the season and it was a great 34-31 OT win for NE. The irony about this match-up is that the Broncos are a great passing team with a good running game going up against an above average passing defense but terrible rushing defense in the Patriots, while the Patriots have become a dominant running team with an average passing attack and face a defense that focuses on stopping the run but struggles against the pass. With that in mind, I think things are going to be different this time around for the Broncos. I think they will navigate the New England defense and although I believe the Patriots will have success in their passing game against Denver's dismal secondary, I still think the Broncos will get the stops they need.

The NFC match-up intrigues me more with two divisional rivals who hate each other going at it. One thing is for sure, this game is going to be physical. The only place home field advantage matters in the NFL today...is Seattle. We've seen how well the Seahawks play at home, we know that crowd is going to be riled up. I expect Seattle to continue to play the stout defense that left a high powered New Orleans offense out of sync all day. I think that may be enough to beat the 49ers again at home. Seattle knows better than any team how to contain Kaepernick and limit that offense. I think the Seahawks will score enough points to win and the defense will take care of the rest.

Alex Rodriguez

2. It was announced that A-Rod's suspension was reduced to 162 games. Do you feel that the decision was right? Should he have gotten more or less?

Ty- 

I definitely don't enjoy Alex Rodriguez at all. But I would have to say I agree with the suspension although I understand why people want more. At the same time he has to be treated like every other player that has been suspended for suspected steriod use. The fact that he never failed a test doesn't help either. As bad as A-Rod is, this whole thing just shows why the MLB and Bud Selig are at fault for not correcting their steriods problem. The system put in place is what failed and the MLB is trying to pass all the blame on to the players.

Spencer-
I think A-Rod deserves what he is getting based on what he is accused of. That being said I do think the MLB needed to do a better job with their gathering of evidence, explanation of said evidence and letting the judicial process do its job. For as big of a scumbag A-Rod is, Bud Selig looked like one for the way he handled things. Like I said though A-Rod is an idiot for trusting Anthony Bosch, who was basically a mall kiosk nutritionist, in the first place and is desperate for trying to paint himself as the victim. Just glad this things over and baseball can move on hopefully in a positive direction.

3. It is officially time to start paying attention to college basketball. #1 Arizona is 17-0 but who do you think is the best team?

Arizona Forward Aaron Gordon

Ty- 

This college basketball season was hyped up because of all the incoming freshmen talent. The freshmen have lived up to some of the hype but have also failed in some ways. Although Jabari Parker has been slumping and Wiggins has had his ups and downs they have both played well. So has Julius Randle but all of their teams have not lived up to the hype. So the somewhat forgotten freshman Aaron Gordon has been showing out for the unbeaten Arizona Wildcats. He hasn't been transcending the team but a great cog In their team oriented success. They also have been getting strong contributions from Nick Johnson and T.J. McConnell. The Wildcats are the best team in the nation for now. I will say that they could have played a little better competition but if they can keep running the table in a decent Pac-10 conference than they should still be #1.

Spencer-

Syracuse Guard Tyler Ennis

For me I gotta go with my #2 ranked Syracuse Orange. I thought it was going to be tough to beat last years final four run but with the squad Beoheim has put together they may be able to do it again. I think the Orange have made a very easy transition to the ACC and just beat one of the old time powerhouses of the conference UNC 57-45. Ennis is so crisp, I think he is better than Carter-Williams was, Grant has a bigger hand in games, Trevor Cooney who was air balling threes last year is knocking them down from anywhere on the floor this year and obviously CJ is the senior leader who brings it all together. Their biggest test will come in facing Duke coming up on Feb. 1 but if they beat them I see no reason why they won't win the conference and earn a number one seed heading into March Maddness.

Knicks guard Iman Shumpart

4.Since the start of the new year both the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets have been playing a lot better. Who do you think has a better shot to reach the playoffs?

Ty-
Knicks.
Right now if the season ended today then the Brookyln Nets would be in the playoffs with a record 15-22. The Knicks are only one game behind them for the eighth spot. If the Nets still had Brooke Lopez then I would easily pick them because their problems seemed to be more about meshing together new parts and injuries more than just being a bad team. Although the Knicks have also had injuries it hasn't been on the same scale. They were just bad in the early part of the year. Since the New Year though the whole team besides J.R. Smith has played better. Most notably Iman Shumpart, while Tim Hardaway Jr has played well all year and now it's starting to come together. Carmelo Anthony no longer has to carry the load that he had to earlier in the season. So I think the Knicks have a better shot to make the playoffs at seasons end but I wouldn't be surprised if both teams made it in the Lackluster east and a team like Chicago falls out after all their injuries and trades.

Spencer-
Gotta agree with Ty on this one. The Knicks. Although really with the Eastern Conference as bad as it is they could both make a run at it potentially. But still i think the Knicks have the best shot. It took a while for guys to get it going like Shumpart and Hardaway Jr. and it looks like even Stoudemire is playing more minutes and actually contributing in some way. Also once Chandler is healthy they will have a better presence down low too so they can only improve from here. I think they are finally figuring out how to work with Carmelo. If they do happen to make it, I don't think they will make it too far in the playoffs and if they want to be a championship contender they need to make it a priority to keep Carmelo and get the right pieces around him....but that is another discussion for another time!

5. Interesting thing we learned over the past week.

Ty- The overpraising of Andrew Luck or QBs in general.

Indianapolis Quarterback Andrew Luck

This past week before the Indianapolis Colts' game against the New England Patriots in the divisional round of the playoffs we learned a lot about the media and the general public's affection for Andrew Luck.

I understand that we all tend to overreact to single players' good and bad games in the NFL. Which is a little crazy because football is the ultimate team game. There are so many factors that decide who wins games in the NFL. I won't pretend like quarterbacks don't affect wins more than other players do in most games. But man have some people overreacted to Andrew Luck these past 2 seasons.

Let me preface my next couple of sentences by saying that I do believe Luck will be great but he has to show me more. But other people are just ready to put him in the same category as the Peytons and the Bradys. Those people tend to ignore the fact that he had an awful lot of turnovers (28) last year and had 7 ints in 2 playoff games this year. A lot of people talk about Lucks 11 game winning drives but fail to mention that he has only done it against 4 good teams and he has only scored a TD in 2 of those games. Or that he played the 3rd easiest schedule last year and that he plays in a weak division in the weakest NFL conference.

Yes Luck is good and has showed a lot of promise. I expect him to have a great career and maybe be a hall of famer. But It's crazy how much people gloss over his faults but pick apart guys like Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III. This also goes for Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick to some extent, both guys have great teams around them but get a lot of praise. Meanwhile Kaepernick struggled to begin the year but has gotten better. While Wilson has been more of a game manager than a prolific QB, he was 9-18 yesterday and has struggled the last couple of weeks.

Bottom line is that those guys are great up and coming quarterbacks, but we shouldn't put them in the Hall of Fame just yet.

Spencer- Big East basketball was better than ACC basketball 

The Syracuse Orange are 3-0 in ACC play.

I touched on it earlier in my Syracuse talk but as basketball season continues we see why the splitting up of the Big East and several teams moving into the ACC was strictly a football move. It's no fluke why Syracuse and Pitt the two new additions to the ACC have so far handled the new schedule no problem and lead a conference they are freshman in. Because when you are used to playing tough, physical big east basketball for years other teams just aren't a threat. Add in the fact that these ACC teams may have seen a two-three zone before, but not the Syracuse two-three zone. 

I will stand by the Big East long after its break up this year as being the best basketball conference there was. People complained Big East teams would go into the NCAA Tourney with more losses and the teams weren't as good but that's because they played better teams all year and beat up on each other so naturally you're gonna lose. Other than UNC, Duke what other match-ups in the Big East intrigued us to watch the ACC.......NONE! Meanwhile you had match-ups like Georgetown, Syracuse. Marquette, Louisville. UConn, Pitt. Syracuse, Nova. Match ups that people wanted to watch. Game that were lower scoring but physical and always had some of the best teams in the league going head to head. 

Now, obviously the Big East is dead and we're not going back to that, and even though I would throw things at the TV watching my Orange lose those tight games, at least we saw good basketball. Now I get to watch them and former Big East teams just steamroll through the ACC until they play each other. Guess I better start getting used to winning more.

Wednesday Read Option 01-08-14

Johnny Manziel

    This is the first day I'm doing this, so let me take this chance to explain what's going on. The Wednesday Read Option will look at the the latest random sports topics of the day.

I will choose these topics at random and there might be 5 or 6 or even 7 different topics depending on what topics I fell like writing a paragraph on. This post will have an emphasis on the options (meaning I choose what I want to do basically). Now let's move on to the topics!

1. Johnny Football is NFL bound!

If you haven't heard for some reason, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has declared that he is going to enter the NFL draft in May. I'm sure most people--including me-- are not surprised that he came out. I mean there was a report that Manziel couldn't even attend regular classes because of how popular he has become on campus.

He won the Heisman trophy his freshman year, so he has already achieved a height that most college football players never attain. The only thing Johnny Football (Or J-Mula, the nickname I just made up for him) had left to do was win a National Championship, which wasn't going to happen soon unless A&M drastically improved their defense which ranked 96th in the nation in points against.

The real question now is how Manziel will translate to the NFL. This question has come up alot because of his size and frame. Manziel is listed at 6'1'' and 210 pounds which really seem like generous estimations. I do believe that he can succeed in the NFL if his future team adapts to what makes J-Mula great. He probably shouldn't run as much as he does now but if he uses his magic to scramble and find open receivers like Russell Wilson does than size shouldn't matter. If I am the Browns or the Jaguars I take him in the first round.

Frank Thomas

2. Only 3 Players made it into the Baseball Hall of fame.

Last year the sports writers didn't vote anybody into the hall of fame. There was only 3 people inducted by the pre-integration committee but none of them where living.

This year there is only 3 (Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux) and there has been backlash to the process that decides inductees. Basically sportswriters, most of whom haven't played baseball, decide who makes it into the hall of fame. I'm not saying that sports writers don't know what they are talking about but man are they stingy with who they induct.

I don't pretend to know a lot about baseball but I do know that guys like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire deserve a little more consideration at least for what they have done for baseball. Even if you don't want to let McGwire in Bonds should be. Even before the steroids speculations Bonds had the numbers to warrant being in the hall of fame.

It was called the "Steroids Era" so most likely those guys where hitting home runs from guys who were on steroids as well. I say just except that era of baseball and move on from it. That being said, I can't really blame people who are hesitant to reward somebody who they think was cheating.

Smith Untying Marion's shoe laces.

3. New York Knicks Reportedly put J.R. Smith on the trading block.

The Knicks continue to be the Knicks as usual. Not that putting Smith on the trading block is a dumb move. It is probably the right move but it seems like they are doing it because J.R. Smith tried to untied or tried to untie opponents shoes.

Smith probably should have been on the trading block a month ago when it was apparent that he was having a terrible season. Smith is shooting career worst 34% from the field and 33% from 3. His offseason back surgery has definitely affected his playing ability. He has been reduced to just jacking up 3's and long 2's.

I doubt the Knicks will get any serious return for Smith but there might be a few contending teams willing to take a flier on a scorer off the bench. But teams will shy away from taking on a guy known for jacking up shots. Specially one that is shooting so terrible from the field.

Update:

According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, J.R. Smith trade talks are a scare tactic. This is because to no one's surprise, there isn't a market to trade him.

4. Jay Gruden is the Redskins leading HC' Candidate.

Bengal's OC Jay Gruden

According to multiple sources Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Coordinator Jay Gruden is the leading candidate to replace Shanahan as the Redskins coach. It has also been reported that he prefers the Titans head coaching job. I don't blame him for not wanting to be apart of the chaos in D.C.

That being said I also don't know if Jay Gruden is the right candidate because I can't decide if he has done a great job making Andy Dalton a lot better than he is. Or if we should credit Gruden for some of Daltons faults. Let's mind the fact that most of the Bengals offense was predicated on throwing the ball up to the talented A.J. Green.

The force feeding of their offense to green has to be a big reason that they have burnt out in the playoffs where teams try to take away your best options the most. Gruden could vary well be a good fit but based off of his resume I don't see why he would be the front runner. The Redskins might be best served to go with a more innovative offensive coordinator like Seattle's Darrell Bevell or The Broncos' Adam Gase. I also think a defensive minded coach wouldn't be bad as well but there are other coaches that have good resumes. Also James Franklin from Vanderbilt might be a great candidate.

I will say it does seem like the Redskins are doing their due diligence and interviewing a bunch of different head coaching candidates. The reason they might be thorough in the search may also be some of the hesitation for coaches to want to work for the organization. Many probably have reservations about the disfunction that surrounds Washington's owner Dan Snyder.

5.  RGIII Character Continues to be Assaulted.

Robert Griffin III

I know this is two posts but I have become irked by the amount of reports that have come out about Robert Griffin since the season has gone down the tank. The first crazy report was that Griffin asked to not watch his own mistakes during film study. The report has proven to be false, which honestly if believed that somebody in the NFL didn't want to watch his mistakes in order to learn from them unlike every football player since freshman year of football, you have to be pretty gullible.

There is no way anybody would even seriously entertain that idea. All the people that attack Griffin for being a madonna are ignoring a lot of key facts about the redskins season. First, where did all this nonsense about Griffin not being able to read defenses, poor work ethic, and attitude come from? The guy graduated from college early, was a proficient passer in college, not a runner like a Tim Tebow and was regarded for having great character coming out of college.

Yet there has been many reports about teammates having rifts with Griffin because of a relationship with the owner Dan Snyder. Santana Moss was quoted as saying Griffin needed to take more responsibility but I don't remember a press conference where he didn't. I do see Griffin speaking to the media after losses while some Redskins players let him take the blame for the season.

Last season Griffin had a whole offseason to work and healthiness, which led to him playing well in the season. People forget that the Redskins started 3-6 mainly due to a poor defense and questionable game management by the coaches. Mike Shanahan actually gave up on the season at that point and then the Redskins went on a 7 game winning streak that heavily featured Griffin and some improvements by the defense.

This year the Skins where predicted to be better because of Griffin but also because an improved defense. Yet the defense was last in the league in points allowed and the special teams was one of the worst in NFL history. Yes Griffin played a lot worse but putting that much pressure on a 2nd year QB coming off of an injury is unrealistic for a team this bad.

Anybody who believes otherwise must not have watched the games or the last 3 games where the same problems with the defense and special teams occurred under Kirk Cousins as QB.  The Redskins were terrible in every aspect of the team. Including coaching which is why Shanahan was fired after having losing seasons in 3 of the 4 years.