NFL Preseason – Every Play Doesn’t Count

The gang at Football Outsiders does a live chat during every nationally televised NFL preseason game under the headline “Every Play Doesn’t Count.” The Week 1 wrap-up is pretty funny, pointing out all the inane chatter and distractions from the game that makes up each telecast.

Some key observations:

Michael David Smith: Random thought: Does anyone know how Martz-coached teams have done in the second halves of preseason games? I have a feeling that the Martz schemes are perfectly suited to exploiting defenses that have scrubs on the field. So the fact that both of the Lions’ backup QBs went for 220 doesn’t say much about the quality of the Lions’ backup QBs, but it does say a lot about the ability of the Martz offense to attack the defense’s weak points. Of course, when the regular season starts the Lions won’t see nearly as many weak points on the opposing defense as they saw against the Bengals’ third-stringers.

[...]

Bill Barnwell: That was some brilliant subtle burying of Aikman (”[Tyson] Thompson got some carries early in the year but he really struggled to get touches later on with two big guys ahead of him”) by Buck (”Thompson broke his leg in October and went on IR…”)

If Herman Edwards actually ran a fashion show, he’d send the same model out there 65 consecutive times and end the show five minutes too late.

[...]

Sean McCormick: The full J.P. Losman experience was on display. On a third-down play, he was athletic enough to pluck a bad snap out of the air, roll right and head upfield, weaving through traffic for a twelve-yard gain. The next play, he was supposed to take a one-step drop and throw the quick slant, but he held onto the ball too long, waiting for the receiver to be wide open instead of throwing to the spot, and the result was an incompletion. He just doesn’t seem to get much a pre-snap read. If he wasn’t so mobile, he’d be Rob Johnson.

Much more at the link.

Michael Vick Suspension for 2007 Season

Michael Vick will be suspended for the 2007 season, Yahoo’s Jason Cole reports.

Two NFL sources said that commissioner Roger Goodell likely will announce this week or next the suspension of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for the 2007 season. “That’s the direction it’s going and has been from the time this started,” one of the sources said this week.

In July, Goodell told Vick not to report to training camp in the aftermath of a federal indictment for his alleged involvement in dogfighting on a property he owned in Virginia. Vick has since been arraigned on the matter and is facing trial in November.

What is unclear is whether Vick will be allowed to return to the Falcons this season if he is acquitted. This offseason, Goodell suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for the entire season but added stipulations that could allow Jones to return earlier if he clears his record.

Said the other source: “The plan was to make sure it was announced before the season. Given what everybody has seen from what (league) security found and what the feds are telling us, there’s really no choice.”

From a public relations standpoint, the NFL would like the matter dealt with before the opening week of the season. The feeling is that if the league can resolve the matter now, any further news on Vick will not detract from the buildup to the season.

The NFL has examined the indictment against Vick at length and has conducted a quasi-investigation of its own. The league has not interviewed anyone associated with the case, but it has pored over as many public documents as it could find.

This is welcome news.

via Ryan Wilson

Two degrees of Tiger Woods separation

The PGA Championship finishes today in Tulsa Oklahoma. Guess who is leading?

TULSA, Okla. – Tiger Woods saved his best golf for the last major. Woods followed his record-tying 63 at Southern Hills with a round that wasn’t anything special Saturday, but no less effective at the PGA Championship. He made 15 pars in his 1-under 69, giving him a three-shot lead over Stephen Ames going into the final round.

It felt much larger considering the history of the world’s No. 1 player.

Woods is 12-0 when going into the final round of major with at least a share of the lead, and he has never lost any tournament when leading by more than one shot after 54 holes.

*****

Woods finished at 7-under 203 and will play in the final round of a major for the third time this year. He was trailing at the Masters and U.S. Open and never caught up, but the odds are much higher in his favor of capturing his first major of the year.

Ames made a 12-foot birdie on the final hole for a 69 that put him in the final group of a major for the first time. Just his luck he gets Woods, spotting the 12-time major champion a three-shot lead.

*****

Only five players remained under par at Southern Hills.

Woody Austin lost his chance to be in the final group when he took bogey on the final hole for a 69, leaving him at 207. Johnson Senden had a 69 and was another shot back, followed by Els.

Verplank held his own until a double bogey from the rough and trees on the signature 12th hole, and a three-putt from the back of the 18th green for bogey sent him to a 74.

Anyone want to bet against Tiger winning today? I don’t think there is a sucker out there to take me up, but feel free to leave a note if you are. Even money odds, Ok?

I was thinking about Tiger and Southern Hills yesterday. There is a golf saying, ‘Horses for certain courses’. This can be easily done with PGA tour stops that play the same course year in and year out, but the PGA is a major that changes courses every year. The last PGA at Southern Hills was in 1994, and the last major(The US Open) held at the course was in 2001.

Don’t worry, I still have come up with a formula or comparison. Consider it golf’s version of that Kevin Bacon game.

Tiger has won majors at Augusta National, Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black, Medinah, Vahalla, Hoylake and St. Andrews. Forget Hoylake and St. Andrews, only one former British Open Champ, 1994 winner Nick Price, has also won at Southern Hills.(Nick does co-hold the course record for Augusta, a 3rd round 63 in 1986)

For our little game remember these names- Hubert Green, Dave Stockton, Arnold Palmer, Lou Graham, Ray Floyd, Lanny Wadkins, Retief Goosen, Mark Brooks, Phil Mickelson, Gary Player and Corey Pavin.

First, the only person to have win at Augusta and at Southern Hills, is Ray Floyd. He took the 1976 Masters at Augusta and the 1982 PGA at Southern Hills. Tiger has won four times at The Masters.

Retief Goosen has won two US Opens, the 2001 US Open at Southern Hills and the 2004 title at Shinnecock.

Note Ray Floyd won the 1986 US Open at Shinnecock. Retief Goosen was second to Tiger Woods at the 2002 Masters. Tiger wasn’t a factor in the only US Open(2004) he played at Shinnecock as a pro.

Corey Pavin the 1995 US Open Champ at Shinnecock, was 2nd to Nick Price at the 1994 PGA at Southern. Lanny Wadkins was 2nd at the 1982 PGA at Southern, and the 1986 US Open.

Phil Mickelson was 2nd at the 2004 US Open(Shinnecock) and 3rd at the 1994 PGA. Heck Phil was third at the 2001 Masters which Tiger Woods won .

Arnold Palmer won at Augusta, and was second at the 1970 PGA at Southern. Note Gary Player also a former Masters winner was second at Southern when it hosted the 1958 US Open.

The reverse Palmer, Player Southern-Augusta connection goes to Dave Stockton. He was 2nd at the 1974 Masters, and won the 1970 PGA Championship.

Besides the Shinnecock-Southern connection, there is the Medinah-Southern connection. Lou Graham won the 1975 US Open at Medinah and narrowly lost the 1977 US open to Hubert Green, finishing in 2nd place one shot behind. Tiger of course won 2 PGA Championships at Medinah.(99 and 06)

How does Vahalla work in? Woods won the 2000 PGA there, Mark Brooks was the 1996 PGA champion, played at the same course. Mark Brooks lost the 2001 US Open playoff to Retief Goosen played at Southern.

Cherry Hills(Outside of Denver) is connected this way. Arnold Palmer won the 60 US Open there, and I already mentioned his other connections above. Hubert Green won the 85 PGA at that course and the 77 US Open at Southern.

Note- Hubert Green was 2nd at the 1978 Masters to Gary Player.

Dave Stockton the 70 PGA Champion at Southern, was 2nd at the 1978 US Open at Cherry Hills.

So we have the Medinah-Southern-Augusta-Vahalla-CherryHills-Shinnecock connection that revolves around at ten or twelve golfers. What’s the signifigance of all this? Absolutely nothing, I’m just showing off some of the golf trivia stored in my head.

Update- Corrected my post to say only Ray Floyd has won at Augusta and Southern Hills. Tiger is trying to become the second.

Dallas Cowboys Kicker Battle: Gramatica v. Folk

The Dallas Cowboys are hoping that 6th round pick Nick Folk can beat out Martin Gramatica and solidify their roster at kicker.

Cowboys training camp has gone so well that one of their biggest questions right now is the kicker. Martin Gramatica vs. Nick Folk.

Only in Cowboys land can this showdown between the veteran and the rookie truly hold fans’ attention. That’s because in recent years the Cowboys’ kickers have collectively made missing kicks an art: They can miss from anywhere at any time in any condition. Since 2000, the Cowboys have had seven kickers combine to make 72.1 percent of their field goals, the worst percentage in the NFL in that span. And only the Redskins have employed more kickers.

[...]

The Cowboys hope Folk wins the job. He’s 23. He has a strong leg (he also punted in college). He would potentially settle a position that has been unstable since the Jimmy Johnson era. “They want to settle it down for a guy to be here for 10 or 12 years,” said Folk, who was born in Germany and holds dual citizenship. He made his only field goal attempt Thursday night in the preseason opener, a 25-yarder. “I’m trying to do that.”

But Gramatica is making it difficult for Folk to win the job. In training camp he’s been consistent. He made two field goals in the preseason opener, including a 47-yarder that would have been good from 57. “I feel a lot stronger, not only kicking but in the weight room,” said Gramatica, 32. “Whatever I’ve done in the weight room has shown on the field.”

Gramatica already has earned a degree of his teammates’ confidence. His 46-yard field goal with 1 second remaining beat the Giants in New Jersey last December. “That was a make-or-break kick for my career,” Gramatica said. “If I had missed it, I probably wouldn’t have been here the next week. That was huge also with my teammates to create trust.”

It should be interesting. My guess is that Gramatica makes the team and they try to keep Folk on the practice squad.

Isaiah Stanback Finally Practices

The Dallas Cowboys finally get to see what former Washington quarterback Isaiah Stanback can do, now that he’s finally healed from a foot injury and shin splints.

Isaiah Stanback, the Cowboys’ fourth-round pick (103rd overall) in April’s draft, finally practiced Saturday for the first real time since he suffered a Lisfranc foot injury Oct. 17, 2006, as a senior at Washington.

A quarterback in college, the Cowboys thought Stanback could be a versatile playmaker in the NFL and planned to move the 6-2, 208-pounder to receiver from the start, in the mold of Hines Ward, Antwaan Randle El or their own Patrick Crayton. “We’re going to start him at receiver and see what he can do,” head coach Wade Phillips said. “I think he can do a lot of things. We’re still going to look at him at returns. He’s really a gifted athlete.”

The team also knew Stanback’s recovery from foot surgery would take all off-season to heal, but figured the value of getting a potential open-field dynamo on the second day of the draft offset the time he would miss while rehabbing.

[...]

Stanback said although he kept up with the mental aspects of the game and the new playbook while watching from the sidelines, the injuries have impeded his transition to receiver because he hasn’t had on-field training in the techniques of the position.

“He came up to me today and said, ‘Wow it’s a lot different when you’re out here running routes,’” wide receivers coach Ray Sherman said after Saturday’s sun-baked practice. “I told him it’s different than anything you’ve ever done. He said he would be all right, but all of a sudden today he said, ‘Coach, you were right.’”

Stanback has played receiver before, but not since his freshman year with the Huskies in 2003, and even then he played only sparingly, catching 10 balls for 143 yards. So the 22-year-old has a little something to fall back on, but not much. “It’s different,” Stanback said. “When the play comes in and you hear it and let it go through your mind before you go out there and run it, and now it’s just boom, go.”

In comparison, when the Cowboys transitioned Crayton from quarterback to receiver his rookie year, things came easier for the Northwestern Oklahoma State product because he only played quarterback as a senior, spending his three previous years catching passes. Stanback doesn’t have that luxury.

“He’s going to come along,” Crayton said. “He’s never had to play the position so that’s his transition. It’s just a total flip-flop of everything. While he was rehabbing he had to do everything mentally, and now he can get in there and get the physical part and get the look of everything at game speed. Because it’s different.”

[...]

While that may take some time, Stanback’s return to practice has already convoluted the roster picture at receiver. Because of his draft status and potential, Stanback would seem to be a virtual lock to make the team. But his inexperience means the Cowboys may need to keep an extra receiver. Sam Hurd and Miles Austin are likely to earn spots behind Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn and Crayton. Stanback would make six – the number of wideouts the Cowboys kept last year. Does the hard-charging Jerheme Urban, one of the biggest preseason standouts, get a spot too? Keeping seven wide receivers might be a tad much.

Frankly, the Cowboys should keep the best 54 athletes, period. Keeping two kickers, mediocre backup nose tackles, barely ready for prime time fullbacks, and the like on the roster is just a waste. Keep all the tight ends, linebackers, and wide receivers who have a chance to be special and then figure out how to cover thin spots with the great athletes.

That’s especially true, I think, at wide receiver. Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn are both 33 years old. This could well be the last season for one or both and there’s certainly no guarantee they won’t lose some playing time to injury. The Cowboys need to figure out what they’ve got talent wise at the position sooner rather than later so they know what they need to do in free agency and the draft next year.

Cowboys Camp Cupcake

Veteran Dallas Cowboys observer Frank Luksa says all the talk about Camp Cupcake under new head coach Wade Phillips is hogwash.

In truth it was[n't] too much different than predecessor Bill Parcells. His camps weren’t unusually harsh, either. But whatever Parcells did to prepare his teams for the long haul, it didn’t work. The Cowboys faded late every season.

They finished with an identical 2-3 record four consecutive years. Add two playoff losses to that 8-12 composite and Parcells went 8-14 through late November and December, months when champions announce themselves. Which is why Parcells never produced one.

I gently suggest that Phillips knows what he’s doing in terms of training a team. This is his 30th NFL training camp so he’s seen every variety under the summer sun. His is the understated way. Parcells dominated the scene. Phillips blends with the surroundings. Much was made of the contrast between dictator and easy rider with most players naturally preferring the latter.

Luksa thinks the real test isn’t camp but how the coach handles the first major incident:

If players feel excessive freedom, their frolic can lead to careless behavior in and out of uniform. Check the last two years of the too-loose Barry Switzer era for details. Coach Tom Landry said part of his job was to force players to do things they didn’t want to do and wouldn’t do if he didn’t demand it. I think he meant things like grass drills before practice and sprints after practice – both stamina enhancing exercises.

I await the first test of discipline and how low-key, soft-spoken Phillips will address it. Some joker will break his rules, likely mistaking Phillips’ persona for an easier touch than most. My bet is on a sharp, swift conclusion. Phillips knows that at age 60 this is his last goat rope and taffy pull. He can’t allow a maverick or two to spoil it.

From what little I’ve seen and heard from Phillips, he appears to be comfortable in his skin. He seems a quietly confident coach, doesn’t care about being in the limelight nor the least giddy at the supposed glamour of coaching the Cowboys. I mean, why should he be impressed about a team that hasn’t won a playoff in 10 years? His task is to lift the once mighty from the ditch.

Now, as frustrated at I was at the team’s lack of discipline under Parcells, which I believe partially comes from the backfiring of the Tuna’s use of outdated motivational techniques like the failure to call Terrell Owens by name, the undeniable truth is that Parcells has led teams to two Super Bowl victories and another team to the big game. Phillips has yet to get to his first.

Still, Luksa may well be right. Lack of championships or no, Phillips is a professional and a highly respected one at that. I suspect he knows what he’s doing.

Re-thinking Barrry Bonds

For the most complete Barry Bonds smackdown read Right Wing Nuthouse’s Not about Barry Bonds.

I am not going to write about his tax problems, brought on by his unreported cash income from signing balls, bats, and anything that isn’t nailed down in a ballpark.

I am not going to write about his personal trainer Greg Anderson, languishing in jail on a contempt charge because he refuses to testify against Bonds and confirm that he and Victor Conte of BALCO helped Bonds bulk up.

I am not going to write about Barry Bonds because Barry Bonds is a cheat, a scoundrel, a woman abuser, and a tax dodge.

In the end though, he lets some ambivalence show through.

No, I won’t write about Barry Bonds. Tomorrow. Today, I, like anyone else who loves baseball, can’t think about anything else.

For a diametrically opposed view of Bonds read John Sickels.

I don’t understand why everyone picks on Bonds. Did he use stuff he should not have used? Probably. So did the pitchers he was hitting against. It probably made him stronger, yes, but it did not improve his strike zone judgment, or his hand-eye coordination, and those were the things that have made him such an exceptional hitter. And it helped the guys he was hitting against just as much as it helped him. And he was hitting in San Francisco…you think that the steroids helped him more than the park hurt him the last few years?

This is really ridiculous I think. If Bonds were more personable, this wouldn’t be a controversy. The press has hated Barry Bonds way before the steroid thing, just like they hated Ted Williams. Because he doesn’t put up with their crap.

This is important. Gaylord Perry was known for scuffing balls, something that had an immediate impact on the game, for it caused a pitched ball to move in unpredictable motions. No matter how long Barry Bonds took steroids he still had to work out to build up his muscles. And it likely had no impact on his coordination.

But even Sickels accepts the premise that Barry is a bad guy personally. Still it’s hard to get past some of the evidence otherwise. Consider for a moment what Bonds has done for some of pitchers he’s victimized. He’s given them autographed bats. And not just Hensley, he also did this for Kip Wells who gave up 600.

And then there’s Cal Ripken

It was a joint effort by Barry and me. I like Barry a lot. I think he’s got a heart the size of a lion, and a lot of people might not recognize that or might not see it. I just thought that commercial had some potential to go beyond what had been written into it. Not that we’re writers or anything. We actually didn’t write it. Someone else did. But we talked it through, and I guess I gave them my permission to make a fool out of myself.

(The context of Ripken’s remarks were about a commercial he and Barry Bonds had made for Franklin batting gloves. The two player were compared. Then finally the announcer says “Barry Bonds has an earring.” As I recall the final scene has Cal sporting an amazingly garish earring with Bonds observing with a bemused look. Cal asks – something like – “You think my Dad will like this?” It’s a classic.)

There’s no getting many of the negative things Right Wing Nut House wrote about Barry Bonds. However I think his biggest problem wasn’t his surliness, but rather that he was surly towards the press corps. Thus he’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt in the media, assuring that he’s never going to get the benefit of the doubt.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Phil + Joba + Mo = win

First off, a Steve Phillips sighting. I was walking in a strip mall in Corolla (pronounced Car-Allah), North Carolina (I’m on vacation), passing a Dairy Queen when I almost bumped into former Mets GM (and current ESPN broadcaster) Steve Phillips. He was with his kids. I was wearing my Yankee cap and he looked at it, then at me, but didn’t say anything. And I didn’t know what (if anything) to say either. It probably would have been something akin to: “You’re an idiot.”

As for tonight’s game (which I watched on MLB.com’s Gameday), it was a beautiful thing ‘watching’ Phil Hughes go a solid six innings, hand the ball to Joba for a perfect two, then to Mo to close it out. Phil threw a ridiculous percentage of strikes, 66 of 95 (69 %), and allowed the only Cleveland run of the game on a fourth inning Josh Barfield solo shot. He k’ed six and gave up just one walk and four hits. Joba pitched the seventh and eighth – he k’ed four and walked none. Torre should have let Farnsworth pitch the ninth, considering the Yanks were up by five, but in the interest of keeping Mo sharp, called on him and he delivered a perfect inning. Three Yankee farmhands combined for an 11 strikeout, four hit, one walk, one run game. A thing of beauty!

The offense consisted of three hits from DJ, a solo shot and two walks from Arod, an rbi triple from Abreu, and two hits from Cano.

Oh, and just one more thing. Boston’s big trade deadline acquisition, Eric Gagne (who Fenway fans gave a standing ovation to before ever throwing a pitch), was hammered in Baltimore [:) ]. He allowed four earned runs and recorded just one out. Baltimore was down 5-1 in the bottom of the 9th, and came back to tie it. They’re now in the bottom of the 10th. Update 10:33 – Baltimore scored off Okajima to win the game 6-5. The Yanks are five games back in the division.

More news:
- Kei Igawa was claimed off waivers by San Diego. The two teams have until Sunday night to work out a deal that would send the Japanese lefty to pitcher-friendly Petco Park. Great news, although I don’t think it will happen. San Diego would probably not pay any of Igawa’s $26 million posting fee (and who knows how much of his salary?), and Cash (and I) still think he could be a useful pitcher one day.
- If Arod opts out after the season and signs elsewhere, the Yanks will receive compensatory draft picks (in the first and sandwich rounds). More great news, because I was under the impression that he had the same deal that Scott Boras’ other player, J.D. Drew, had (that the Dodgers could not receive compensatory draft picks if he signed elsewhere).

Cowboys Off to Great Start

Mickey Spagnola notes that the Cowboys have finished the first phase of camp — their first preseason game is tonight– with no incidents. Compared to the past several years, that’s really something:

There were no major injuries. Yeah, yeah, I know Terry Glenn had his right knee scoped to remove a cyst from the back of his kneecap. But he’ll be back before you know it. OK, Ellis and Isaiah Stanback can’t seem to get back into practice, but they might not be far away from returning – maybe like 290 miles.

Because it’s not as if Mike Sherrard broke his leg. It’s not as if Troy Aikman needed back surgery. It’s not as if Dwayne Goodrich tore his Achilles or even Mike Lucky his ACL.

Hey, even Marcus Spears made it through the first of his three training camps without spraining his MCL and missing like two to three weeks of practice.

There were no incidents. Terrell Owens was a choirboy. He did, to our knowledge, everything he was told. His missed practices because of sore legs and back spasms that went unchallenged, and never once did you detect a contentious relationship with the head coach, the offensive coordinator or the wide receiver coach. Best he could do this summer was appear in full Spiderman regalia, mask sock included, before Wednesday’s final practice.

Kidding me?

Why, no one got stabbed in the neck with barber shears. No one had to be talked off the ledge of quitting. No one had their position coach brush his pancakes rudely off the dining hall table because he was overweight. No rookie showed up late for camp or has yet to be caught with a woman in his Mexico City hotel room after curfew. No one had to be bailed out of jail.

There were no veteran holdouts, no suspensions and, granted it was only 16 days here, but only three guys were even cut – a fifth quarterback, the rookie free-agent punter who was behind a Pro Bowler and just Wednesday after the walk-through, no-chance tight end Andy Thorn. La-de-dah.

The starting quarterback did not get released, nor was he secretly whisked out of camp when few were looking, still trying to eat his Cheerios as he was making his way to the get-away car. The backup quarterback did not slug the starting quarterback, nor did he get traded on an off-day, and in fact, you know what, there hasn’t even been on off-day yet, and won’t be until Sunday. The kickers for the first time in three camps haven’t been an issue. No torn quad this last day of camp. And charting kicks became boring, since Martin Gramatica had only one bad day, missing like two of his five kicks, and rookie Nick Folk missed his first kick of camp Monday, and only by a sliver. Where’s Mr. Most Accurate Kicker In NFL History when you need him?

Knock on wood.

Oh: The first game that counts, against the New York Giants, is exactly one month away.