Friday, November 5, 2010

Friday Football Thoughts

Alright, before we get into a great weekend of football, here are my thoughts that I have accumulated over the last week.

Usually, I like to take a look at who Iowa is playing next, but I can't sit through an Indiana game. Here's the quick scoop: Their defense sucks, and they like to pass the ball. As long as James Hardy does not regain eligibility, the Hawkeyes should cruise to an easy victory.

Also, how is James Hardy a total bust? That guy owned Iowa like no other player has before. Is he just sitting at home hoping an NFL team signs Adam Shada so he can dominate the pro level? Probably. God, I hate James Hardy.

The League is such a bad show. I keep watching it out of habit, but it just keeps getting worse and worse. It's gotten to be like a really disappointing relationship. It's like getting with a girl with a pretty face, but who's a little thick. You think that she's going to lose that little bit of weight, and be really hot, but she just keeps packing on pounds, and although there's a lot of potential there, eventually you just have to let go.

I heard the best fantasy idea ever this week. You get a football, basketball, and baseball league, but you do one draft for all three leagues. You can draft any sport at any time in the draft, and you can make trades from your other teams to help stock your roster. Imagine trading Arian Foster and Pablo Sandoval for Derrick Rose. This would be the most fun league in the history of fantasy sports. If anybody's interested, let me know.

I know my Husky (the Washington ones, not the fat ones) fans may not like this, but here are my thoughts on Jake Locker:

His biggest issue is that he locks onto one receiver, and he completely freezes if that option isn't open. His pocket awareness was not there at all against Stanford as he got sacked a lot, but a lot of the time he just stood still until somebody took him down.

He's really not all that accurate of a quarterback. He has the physical tools to make any throw, but he makes some really awful passes. His two interceptions from last game were a slant that he led the guy too far and a seam route that he overthrew by about ten yards. Even Jay Cutler is more careful with his throws.

Locker is a great athlete, but he doesn't use it effectively. Despite great speed, because of the poor awareness, I would say his actual mobility is below average. One thing I did like was when UW rolled him out of the pocket. It was very rare, which I didn't understand, but he did look a lot more comfortable when moving outside of the pocket, and actually seemed more comfortable throwing on the run as opposed to setting his feet and firing passes. I don't think you can create an NFL offense around a guy constantly rolling out. Because of that, I wouldn't even think about drafting this guy until maybe the third round. He's got all the tools to be great, but there's just too much that needs to be fixed. The Hoff agrees.

On the other end of the QB spectrum, Andrew Luck is awesome.

He just has such great awareness of everything going on in the field of play. He is able to scan the field and make great decisions on which receivers to throw to. He does a great job of feeling pressure, and is able to move around the pocket to avoid sacks. He's not as good of an athlete as Locker, but the way he uses his speed gives him far greater mobility. Not only was he able to avoid sacks, but he also saw an open lane on a passing play and ran 51 yards for a TD. Also, all of his decisions are extremely quick. He moves through his progressions so well that he can hit his third option before a pass rush gets to him.

Also, most importantly for a QB, Luck throws a strong ball with good accuracy. He had a lot of strikes that were 15-20 yards downfield where he put it where only his receives could catch it. The only complaint that I could come up with his throwing is that his deep ball was a little shaky, but I think he only threw one or two, so that's an extremely small sample size.

I feel that a lot of times the only reason Washington ever stopped Stanford was because of poor play calling, because Luck’s first option on third down was a short route where they weren’t able to create enough after the catch to get the first down.

One thing I might worry about is that Luck did seem hesitant to challenge Washington downfield and would take the dink and dunks even if they weren’t enough for first downs. Still, a lot of this could be attributed to a huge lead for Stanford and not wanting to make a big mistake to give Washington a chance to get back in it.

The only other issue is that Washington sucks, but Luck can't really help that. I'm hoping to catch at least a decent amount of the Stanford/Arizona game tomorrow, which should give me a better idea of how he performs against at least a solid defense.

Yes, I love Andrew Luck. Don't judge me.

-Joe

P.S. If Zenyatta and Andrew Luck decided to fornicate, they would create the ultimate centaur baby. I'm just throwing it out there.

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