Monday, November 16, 2009

Quick Football Notes

1. Jeff Triplette is so terrible at refereeing that I’m not even going to double-check the spelling of his name. His transgressions are obvious, and in this game in particular, I wondered just how much his participation mucked things up.

Wasn’t this game bizarre? I don’t know what I learned about the Packers in this game. I don’t really think they played much better than in any of their recent losses (except maybe on special teams). Offensively they were probably worse. Yet they won. Against a pretty good team. And Tripplete is there with his wacky penalties at strange, important times, allowing extra challenges, making nonsensical explanations. I think Triplet completely mucks up the game, and no new information can be learned about a team if Triplett is involved. For purposes of future analysis, I’m just ignoring this one.

2. Tripllette owes Al Harris an apology. Of course, the Jeff Tripelette apology list is pretty long.

3. Bill Belichick made the correct call when he went for it on 4th down at his own 30 yard line. It didn’t work, but sometimes the right call doesn’t work. He gave his team the best chance to win. It went against conventional wisdom, but conventional wisdom in this case is wrong. More here.

4. Brandon Jennings is apparently awesome. Not a football note, but warrants a mention.

5. I have less confidence in Mason Crosby than in any Packer kicker I can remember.

6. What’s the deal with Greg Jennings? Did we all overrate him? Is this a consequence of the bad offensive line? Has he actually been OK without me noticing? He hasn’t had an impressive game for a long time now.

7. The Pack has to win their next two games v. San Fran and then at Detroit. They play 3 out of their last 4 on the road against some pretty good teams.

7 comments:

Lenny Bruce said...

I was at Saturdays game it was amazing in the 3rd Quarter even the people in the Suites were watching the games.

The BC really felt and sounded like it did back during the Big Three's run it was a fun place to be and a great game to watch

Who knows this team and Jennings may surprise us all. Jennings makes Bogut a lot better I just hope Redd coming back does not muck up the works.

Other thought Aaron Kampmann does not play Defense puts on its best performance of the season(Cleveland does not count)

Jon said...

belichick call was so awesome because instantly as i was watching it i thought 1) holy crap thats probably the right move (later confirmed w/ some quick assumptions & math)but nobody ever does that and 2) if it doesn't work 99% of america is going to not get it at all and totally rip him
nice to see my lack of faith in america's intelligence confirmed!

by the way paul, football outsiders, a site whose analysis i continue to be more and more disappointed with, were pretty critical of the move - very disappointed in them!

PaulNoonan said...

I've noticed. In Audibles I think every one of them disagreed.

Though I was chatting with a friend earlier who pointed out that the New England defense actually did do a very good job against Indy for most of the game. 7 punts and 2 picks. Still even he admitted that at best punting was a close to a wash.

I don't really feel that different about FO. Some of their stuff is useful as long as you understand what it is and isn't telling you, and some of it is crap.

Jon said...

yea but peyton is a great 4th Q closer, pats d was tiring and not effective previous 4th Q drives, etc. no matter how you crunch the #'s, its somewhere from very slight advantage to going for it to big advantage to going for it (somewhere between 1-10% gain in win probability)

TD said...

"5. I have less confidence in Mason Crosby than in any Packer kicker I can remember."

You clearly don't remember Tom Birney.

God those were some dark years. I wish I didn't him either.

TD said...

Lenny, I agree with your concern about Redd coming back screwing up the chemistry. I'm far from an expert on the NBA or the Bucks for that matter. I really haven't watched them much since they tanked the year after the Big 3 got them to the Eastern Conference Finals. Having said that, and understanding it was just one game, they shot like 27% in the first half of that game ... I think they could use more than one guy who can knock down a shot.

One thing for sure ... for the first time that I can remember, I actually went out to look to see when they play next so I can make sure to turn them on to watch.

Eric said...

You can't blame the line for Greg Jennings. If the line were at fault then Donald Driver should also be affected. If anything DD has stepped it up