Phew. Glad the better team won. Aren't we all glad? Given GB's schedule over the rest of the season and the road Arizona has to go through after having lost today GB has a good chance at nabbing the number one seed. The problem is Detroit's schedule is just as soft so they could lose it on the last game of the season. With how the teams have played since the last match up they shouldn't lost to Detroit again, but who knows?
It's amazing how that one incomplete pass to Gronk in the end zone totally changed the complexion of the game... it went from "how the hell is GB going to recover?" to missed kick by the Pats to them not being able to stop the clock before it ran out.
Good game, Packers. Nailbiter to the end. Frustrating, but whenever a QB throws for more than 350 yards, you're going to have a bad time. It shouldn't have been that close to begin with, but the Pats defense seems to like waking up at the 5 yard line.
That should have been defensive pass interference on that Gronk play, the guy was pushing Gronk down to the ground and wasn't even looking at the ball. At the same time opportunities were missed and the Patriots bend don't break offense got broken a few times. See you fuckers in the Super Bowl.
The patriots got a really bullshit call go their way on a 3rd down incomplete during their 3rd TD drive, so it all evened out in the end. I don't remember the players, but the receiver just ran up and shoved the CB and they called defensive holding. I like that there isn't any teams clearly running away with it this year. Last year Seattle and San Francisco looked a head and shoulders above the rest of the NFC. Seattle is still the team that scares me the most going into the playoffs. I think they still win their division and if they can keep their current momentum going into the playoffs they're going to be really hard to beat. Mostly I'm just glad the giants aren't getting in. Fuck them and coming into Lambeau in the playoffs and pulling huge upsets out of their ass. Though those two resulting super bowls almost made it worth it.
I made the mistake of going to the bar to watch the Packers game. Never again. However, the game itself was FUCKING AWESOME. Sure beat the shit out of the crap games on Thanksgiving. What a bunch of boring ass games.
Anyone have suggestions for thoughtful football analysis? The articles either need to be great writing or great analysis. At Grantland, I'd say two authors embody that - Charlie Pierce is a great writer, and Bill Barnwell is a thoughtful analyst. Also at Grantland, I've come to dislike Simmons - he's rarely thoughtful, his writing is childish and mediocre, and he's unbelievably repetitive. Another week, another dumb nickname for a player who did something noteworthy. Unfortunately I think his writing appeals to the masses and is pretty representative of a lot of football analysts. So... thoughts on writing that's like Pierce/Barnwell, and not like Simmons?
I read Pierce and Barnwell, I have been a reader of the MMQB for a long time but have come to realize that I hate Peter King. Nothing but a mouthpiece for whatever the NFL wants him to say.
King is awful. He and Easterbrook are the old guard, haughty sportswriters who just dont get it. King is a schill for the NFL front office and Easterbrook is a pious douche who likes telling young people to get off his lawn. They both suck massively.
So... that's it? 2-3 articles per week from Barnwell and 3-6 articles per year from Pierce are all the industry analysis worth reading? Surely you jest. I poke around fivethirtyeight.com sometimes and the articles there are interesting but there's a little too much number wanking without accompanying analysis for my taste. I don't really get off on looking at distribution curves - I'd like to hear some intelligent analysis. If you want to back it up with a distribution curve, fantastic.
Bleacher Report is largely garbage, but they have Matt Bowen writing some articles for them, and he's fantastic. He calls into a couple of Chicago sports talk stations for segments and he has a GREAT nuts and bolts understanding of the game, and breaks down strategy well. He posts most of his articles on Twitter if you dont want to sort through the other BR nonsense.
It might be worth wading through the team blogs on SBnation. A lot are garbage, but some have pretty good writers and you get articles about little things the national guys don't touch. SBnation is pretty good about getting their better guys press access. The problem is that people come and go a lot.
I'll take a look at him. I hate Bleacher Report's website, so I never see anyone who writes for them. Between the garbage top-10 lists, having to click a dozen times to get through any given article, and a half broken mobile experience unless you download their terrible app, I just skip BR entirely. One of the most infuriating websites I've ever visited - for the longest time, on both my Android devices, I couldn't dismiss the full-page ad for their app when you visited an article, and if I did get it dismissed, it was almost inevitable that the article navigation would stop working part way through and you'd be stuck halfway into the article. Clutch, I'll take a look at SBnation. They're part of one of my news aggregators, but the few articles I've clicked through on have been bad and thus I've stopped clicking, but I probably didn't give them a fair shake.
re: Simmons, doesn't do football analysis, only opinion. If you consider anything he does analysis unless he's doing real numbers, let it go. He's highly entertaining, anything else, I defer to barnwell or fivethirtyeight for when they actually discuss real football. And yes, its fucking shocking how many people will drop 5,000 words on intangibles, or just really focus on off the field activity. Robert Mays has some good stuff, he really likes to talk about line play and defense pretty well. Once again, Grantland. Speaking of Simmons, his podcast with Don Van Natta Jr on Roger G was excellent. Really shows how fucked up the whole NFL owner + commissioner situation is. Also interesting how it just happened how Judge Jones who ruled that Ray Rice couldn't be suspended for additional time beyond the two games, came out on a quiet Friday. Turns out that's just when she finished her decision, but how lucky for the NFL. Yeah, Roger G lied about what he knew, when he knew it and how much he knew. A lot of the league did.
Simmons is a terrible writer. He's popular because he hits the lowest common denominator, and people find that entertaining. That's cool, but it doesn't mean he's a good writer. I'm fine with opinion. Charlie Pierce doesn't do analysis, he only does opinion. I just request that the person writing not target a 5th grade reading level.
The annoying thing is that GE thinks he's an iconoclast. At least King seems to get what his job is, even if he overstates his degree of independence. Gregg actually thinks he's speaking truth to football media power or something. Maybe this was true fifteen years ago, I don't know. But "people should go for more fourth downs" and "some of these guys hot dog too much; they should be like gritty linemen!" aren't exactly blistering hot takes in 2014, and his opinions on media that he throws in are terrible and the worst kind of curmudgeonly.
Still in his corner after he said on his podcast yesterday that your boy Rose no longer has superstar capability?
Just finished listening to that this morning. I can listen and appreciate Simmons even though I don't agree with everything he says. Listening to only people you agree with 100% of the time is silly and mentally stumping. He said some stuff early about Jimmy Butler that concerned me. But Simmons quickly and swiftly admits when he's wrong about stuff like this, so I'll be okay. And he'll write a glowing article with Rose as the headline. (If he's wrong...)
What in the hell is wrong with the Niners. Why won't they run the ball? Is Harbaugh really the issue? So many questions, so much frustration.
For the millionth time, a running QB is not a better option than a passing QB. It's a cute gimmick and good for an impressive season, maybe two but a QB with quick feet and a slow release is trouble. Every time he takes off running, it makes him look like a showboat or an egomaniac. They are soaked with talent (Gore, Boldin, Crabtree, Davis) but Kap either can't get them the ball effectively or keeps it, making the whole offense sputter. Whether Harbaugh knows that or not will determine if he keeps his job.