Friday Football Thoughts

Usually this is filled with college football thoughts, but my options were pretty limited since I didn't care about the early games last Saturday, I'm certainly not talking about the Iowa game, and I was drunk for everything after the Iowa game.  Still, there was a good game on last night, I've got some thoughts on the Bears, and a TV show that is about fantasy football.

Vontaze Burfict is a guy that you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on, He can be kind of a bonehead sometimes, but the ability is there. He’s just a sophomore and the guy absolutely flies all over the field and is constantly around the ball. I’ve only really seen him while paying attention to the QBs on the other side (Luck and Foles), but I like what I see.

A lot of people have been pumping up Nick Foles, and there are a lot of things to like. The issue that I still have with him is if he has to move his feet at all, it seems like his mechanics go to absolute shit, and he just can’t make the throws. As he showed last night (and for the third time this season), he is built to destroy the prevent defense, because if he doesn’t have to deal with pressure, he will make you pay. And yes, his final touchdown pass in regulation was done on the run, but it wasn’t exactly a model of great mechanics.

Bears are not a fun team to watch. It’s not just because they’re not good. The rollout thing which worked awesome early in the season, then the Bears got away from it, now it’s working awesome again is going to get figured out. The Lions are a team that can let their defensive ends contain the outside and let Suh rush up the middle. If me and Schwartz are on the same page, don’t be surprised if the Bears get upset on Sunday.

If Iowa gets selected to the Outback Bowl, it will mean that their losses to Arizona, Northwestern, and Minnesota had no bearing on which bowl they were selected to play in. A 10-2 Hawkeyes team would still be going to the Outback Bowl. Now they could still go to a much lesser bowl game, but it is a little ridiculous that a quarter of Iowa’s season may have had zero impact on the Hawks ultimate destination.

Rob Rang of CBS Sports did not say that Andrew Luck was the best player in the 2010 draft; he did not say that he was the best quarterback he has ever scouted; he said he is the BEST PLAYER he has seen since 2001. At first, I thought it was just hyperbole, but then I started thinking about it, and he might be right. A quarterback is never going to be the physical presence that other positions provide, but Luck’s ability impresses me every time I see him. The reason he doesn’t have a gaudy 7-TD game is because that’s not really Harbaugh’s strategy as a coach. It’s nearly impossible to definitively claim him to be the number one prospect of the last ten years, but I would put him in my top-4 along with AP, Megatron, and Suh. He really is that good.

Finally, we end with my review of The League. I’ve talked to intelligent people who love this show, and the only logical explanation is that the stupidity of this show temporarily beats their brain cells into submission.  Here is something from last night about each character that made absolutely no sense.

Andre – Soy doesn’t even have estrogen. It has an estrogen like substance that is thousands of times weaker than estrogen.

Kevin – The radio guys knew his number, yet still took a call from that number when he had his daughter call. He also never bothered to try and use a cell phone, work phone, or pay phone.

Ruxon – This was definitely the most mind-numbingly retarded thing on this episode.  Instead of explaining to his wife that he was just lying so he could get a fantasy football question answered, he chose to make up a fake wife. If you didn’t watch that and just think to yourself, “Wow, that’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever seen on TV,” you probably aren’t smart enough to feed yourself.

Pete – Somehow managed to not know what his boss looks like. Despite not working at his company, I was 100% positive that he was the boss of the company.  He also waited until the last possible moment to set his fantasy rosters. Finally, why did he step on the dude’s head when he could have just asked for a boost from the guy’s hands?

Taco – Let me say this: I think Jon Lajoie is hilarious. Unfortunately, the Taco character is absolutely pointless. Nothing he does has anything to do with the prominent plotlines. He just does something weird and quirky that isn’t even all that clever. Outside of athlete guest appearances, Taco may be the worst part of the show.

And yes, I am a glutton for punishment as I will be watching next week's season finale, but I promise that it will be the last episode I watch.

-Joe

P.S. I was terribly offended that people chanted Scottie Pippen to insult LeBron James. Scottie Pippen was awesome. I could only hope that people would chant Scottie Pippen at me when I blog. It’d pump me up to be one of the 50 best bloggers of all time.

P.P.S.  Awesome night of sports on TV, Bulls vs. Celtics for everybody, and if you're in Iowa, Mediacom Connections is showing the Iowa-Iowa State wrestling meet.  This one has a very good chance of not ending well for Iowa, I'm an idiot and just assumed that Iowa State hadn't plummeted to atrocious levels (they have), but there's still gonna be a lot of good matches either way.

P.P.P.S.  Another thing about the Bulls, everyone knows that I love watching Derrick Rose, but I was very excited to hear that D-Rose also likes watching me.

P.P.P.P.S.  It's really a shame that Ron Santo couldn't make the Hall of Fame while he was alive.  The guy was a deserving candidate both on and off the field.