Chargers RB by Committee?

Posted by on March 31st, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

He was probably the most pleasant surprise of the otherwise disappointing San Diego Chargers season, running back Branden Oliver.
 
He proved to be a tough guy running the football in the preseason, making you wonder why he was never drafted coming out of the University of Buffalo.
 
He put up back-to-back 100 yard games early in the season, when injuries nailed Ryan Mathews then Danny Woodhead.  He rumbled for (114Y) against the disappointing Jets, then (101) against the woeful Raiders.
 
He opened eyes with his toughness to bounce off tackles, his balance to withstand hits, his power running thru people, and his durability.  Then he did nothing the final 10-weeks of the season.
 
Branden Oliver is being praised right now by the Chargers, who are looking to him to replace Ryan Mathews, who left as a free agent to sign a 3Y-deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.  Mathews gave the Chargers a year and half of strong man running back work, and 3-and-a half years of nagging injuries and doubts.  
 
When he was healthy, he had 7-different injuries, he was the power back this team needed to make quarterback Philip Rivers even more dangerous.  But aside from a brilliant 2013, Mike McCoy’s first year, his productivity and availability was uneven. 
 
In that magical season, McCoy taught him to be a pro running back.  You could see his improved conditioning, you could sense his maturity, you saw the little things finally done right, catching passes and blitz blocking.
 
When he was done with that season he had 311-touches, and 1444-all purpose yards, and you thought he had arrived.  And then he got hurt again last year, multiple times.
 
It was a nasty season, Mathews going down, the tough setback injury to Danny Woodhead, and the subpar year of Donald Brown.  Yes Oliver caught the fancy of alot of people, but it was for just two weeks.
 
Woodhead broke his leg, and no one can really tell if he can duplicate his magical 2013 season of 1,034 all purpose yards.  Brown had just a (2.6) yards per carry mark, the worst of his five year career since coming from the Colts.
 
It brings us back to Bull-from-Buffalo.  Those final 10-games of the season, he had 103-carries for 333-yards, a (3.2) average.  Of the 160-carries, 83-resulted in 2-yards or less, and 25-were tackles-for-loss carries.  Was it him, or was it a poor offensive line?
 
The Chargers may have a shot at two great college running back, Wisconsin power back Melvin Gordon, or Georgia star Todd Gurley, recovering from mid year knee surgery.  Both could be there with the 17th pick in the first round.  Of course San Diego still needs offensive line help, and could wind up with a quality tackle-guard or center with that pick.
 
Tough call coming on draft day, of course they’ll have to wait and see what surprises happen above them in that first round.
 
That’s why it is so surprising Mike McCoy would make the comment, Branden Oliver is his guy, that after seeing him disappear.  He said he could be the Bolts workhorse..I think he is more of a plow-horse.  He may get yards, just don’t think he can deliver the goods, bring in the crop in Sunday-by-Sunday in the NFL.

March Madness Monday

Posted by on March 30th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

The Elite Eight…it was excellent…it was electric…it was indeed exciting.
 
So the field is set for next weekend’s showdown in Indianapolis, the finals of the NCAA tourney.
 
It’s many of the names you expected.  Coach K and Tom Izzo, John Calipuri and the newcomer to the mix, Bo Ryan.  It’s the traditional powers like Duke and Kentucky, and Michigan State and the other guy on the block, the football school Wisconsin.
 
Gonzaga and Mark Few tried so hard, hung so tough.  Arizona seemed so close, but so far away again under coach Sean Miller.  Louisville had it and lost it.
 
Those gritty Bulldogs form Spokane spent every ounce of energy but just missed.  There seems to be no explanation for the U-of-A, where Miller is now (0-5) in Tucson trying to get his Wildcats to the Final 4.
 
But it was some weekend of warriors play.
 
Michigan State just willed it way past Louisville, out-toughing them, hitting big baskets, staving off comebacks, and sinking free throws.  A (10-0) Spartan run got them the lead.  They survived the loss of their top two big men to fouls, and found a way to lean all over Rick Pitino’s club, which had just 1-basket in the its final 10-possessions in regulation and overtime.
 
On Wisconsin they are still singing in the bars back in Madison.  The Badgers buried 10-3 point shots in a huge comeback, in their putdown of Arizona.  The UW bigs, led by 7-footer Frank Kaminsky and his 3-point shooting buddies, did in the more athletically gifted Wildcats.
 
Kentucky was pushed to the edge by Notre Dame, with the Irish hitting outside shot after outside shot, taking UK to the limit before losing at the end.
 
Duke is Duke, regardless what day of the week, what week of the year, what year on the calendar it is.  That front line is so good, they’ll be in the NBA a year from now.  The Zags are the little train that could, and almost did.  There is nothing to be ashamed of at Gonzaga, 35-wins is an amazing accomplishment.
 
The blue bloods for the most part won this run of March Madness.  There were not too many upsets along the way.  It was fun to watch Wichita State beat who they beat.  You rooted for the near upset by UC Irvine in a near win.  You felt bad injuries robbed Virginia down the stretch, taking away an exceptional season.
 
But the best will play the best next weekend.  No place for the timid when Kentucky’s young guns face old school Wisconsin.  Duke-Michigan State will be the matchup of the old dog coaches, Izzo-vs-Coach K.
 
A pretty good tournament, and 3-big games left on the schedule, starting next Friday.

Cruel Times for a Kid Pitcher

Posted by on March 27th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

It was all there right in front of him.
 
Top pick in the baseball draft, a likely mega-signing bonus, and a fast lane to the future with a ballclub that desperately needed pitching.
 
All there, and now it’s gone, at least for the foreseeable future.
 
Brady Aiken, Cathedral Catholic High School pitching star, will be released from the hospital this weekend, after undergoing Tommy John elbow ligament transplant surgery.
 
So talented, such a bright future, now no contract, no draft status, and no baseball for the next 12-to-16 months.
 
The bad news to a really good young man just will not go away.
 
The top pick in last June’s draft, taken number 1-by the lowly Houston Astros, it was right there that everything went off track.  He had pitched Cathedral Catholic to a banner season, going (7-0) with a 1.06 ERA and a torrid 228-strikeouts in 111-innings.  Carefully handled, rested between starts, kept on a fairly consistent pitch count, it seemed as if everything had fallen into place.  Instead his career has fallen apart.
 
He never signed with the Astros, caught in the middle of a war of words about a pre-signing physical, in which a deformed, or smaller than normal elbow ligament showed up on scans.
 
What was a $6.5M signing bonus package was pulled off the table, replaced by an insulting 1M-offer.  Then when the story leaked out, the Astros, who had built a reputation for cheapness in gutting their once famous franchise, upped the offer again, to $3.5M.  The acrimony would not go away.  Then at the deadline, with the team taking hits from everywhere, they upped the offer a second time to $5M.  The family, insulted, rejected it.
 
Aiken had been recruited to UCLA, but if he enrolled, he would not be eligible for the draft again till 2017.  He elected to stay out of school, and attend the IMG baseball academy, to continue to train, and pitch in exhibitions, awaiting next year’s draft.
 
He had pitched internationally for the US under 18-team, beating teams in Japan and Taiwan with no signs of health issues.
 
But last week, in his lst exhibition outing for IMG, he came off the mound after 12-pitches with pain in the elbow.  A torn UCL-ligament, and immediate surgery.
 
No one knows the full story.  Was he handled and pampered in high school because the family knew of the ligament issue?  Did they sit on the story, and hide it from all the teams at the top of the draft, because clubs cannot give pre-draft physicals?  Did they believe the ligament would hold up since he had never had problems?
 
The Astros, who had every right for the physical after the draft pick was made, no longer look like the villains they were initially.  They get an additional draft pick this coming June for not having signed him.  But the pitcher no longer has a future.
 
Sports medicine is spectacular, and Aiken will be back on the mound sometime by the first of the year.  Whether he can become an even better pitcher with a stronger ligament is open to debate.  
 
Sports medicine surveys show 82% of the pitchers who have the TJ surgery get to pitch again.  Baseball says 25% of pitchers on rosters last year in the majors had the surgery and got back to the show.  No one really knows however, if they come all the way back and become dominant again.
 
What a cruel year it has been for Brady Aiken.  No contract, no draft slot now for this coming season, and no team to pitch for.  A good kid deserving better than the bad hand he has been dealt with that elbow.

 

NFL in L.A.

Posted by on March 26th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

The NFL owners meetings have broken up.
 
Commissioner Roger Goodell has given ‘lip service’ to the NFL-to-LA story  He has provided bullet-point thoughts, generic as they may be, about the 3-teams with Stadium problems, and the city that doesn’t have a team.
 
So he implores the San Diego Mayor and his Task Force to continue full speed ahead with their ideas about financing a new stadium at the Qualcomm sight.  He praises St. Louis and its civic leaders, for the aggressive approach they have taken to building a new Rams Stadium.  And he monitors, renewed efforts in Oakland, involving now the city and county, about how to pay for a 55,000-seat Raiders Stadium.
 
The NFL owners will meet in May, and by then San Diego, Oakland and St. Louis may have their plans and ideas in place, to present to Dean Spanos, Stan Kroenke and Mark Davis.
 
This will be a challenge in California, where dollars seem tougher to come by when it comes to local financing in San Diego and in Oakland, but less of a challenge where the state of Missouri and St. Louis seem really linked to get it done.
 
There is an alternative idea that is floating around out there.  Though the NFL continues to deny, at least in public, the discussions are taking place, they have had to at least think about this.  Reality says expansion should seriously be considered.
 
Los Angeles, the number 2-market in the world, and the biggest city in Canada,Toronto,  are open territories, with lots of money, and probably lots of investors.  Think of the NFL expansion fees fellow owners could rake in from Canada and LA.  Think of the revenue streams that could be created with a clean piece of paper in Los Angeles, and a dominion wide franchise that Oh-Canada would wrap its arms around.
 
The NFL owns LA, and the new owner of the Buffalo Bills, Terry Pegula, says he would not fight a franchise going in the other side of Lake Ontario, eventhough some Canadians would possibly give up Bills tickets to root for the home team at the Skydome-Rogers Center.
 
Expansioin would solve lots of issues, even if 34-is an odd number.  You’d be gaining two huge television markets, and a truly new network partner to the north.
 
You would solve the relocation threat, and still work with the Rams-Chargers-Raiders to solve their stadium problems.  You would no longer have the mortal sin on your soul of allowing another city to hijack established franchises from cities that have supported those bad franchises.
 
Yes Goodell has already activated his Committee on Los Angeles.  What he should do next is explore this alternate solution, and form his Expansion Committee.  
 
Take a different look at the profit model from the entrance fees expansion owners would pay, the new TV haul of revenue with additional contracts, PSLs, skybox money, merchandising money, plus the good will you’d create by preserving teams in towns, whose loyal fans don’t deserve to lose their franchise in the middle of the night.
 
New teams in two new markets seems like win-win, for Los Angelinos, les Canadians, and the Bolts-Silver & Black, and Rams fans.  Just do it…

Instant Replay: Use or Non-use

Posted by on March 25th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

I don’t understand their way of thinking, these NFL owners, and the refusal to use the advanced technology at hand to improve NFL games.
 
They wrap up their spring owner’s meetings in Arizona today, having decided not to expand the use of instant replay to get additional calls right, important calls that impact the outcome of games.
 
Instant replay, as complex as it might seem, has helped the credibility of the game, become a great aid to officials, who at times struggle to keep up with all the action on the field.
 
Replay works well to determine possession of the ball, in-bounds plays, end zone plays, touchdowns-non touchdowns, fumbles, interceptions and more, things that change momentum of the game that impact the outcomes.
 
And now with hi-def television, the enormous advancement in technology, comes the question, why not use replay also to evaluate major penalties?
 
Was that really pass inteference on that big pass play?  Did the receiver shove off?  Was he interfered with in his route or attempt to catch the ball?  Those 30 and 50 yard penalties in games are big momentum changers.  Why not use the technology to make sure the call is correct?
 
Ditto too for the other big game changers, the personal foul penalties.  Hits to the quarterback, and blows to defenseless players.  In this case, NFL officials have to weigh ‘intent’ vs ‘accidental’ contact.  But again replay could help.
 
Was the pass rusher shoved in the direction of the quarterback?  Did the quarterback move and therefore put himself into the line of getting hit in the head?  Was the hit to the defenseless player with a shoulder (legal) or a helmet (illegal)?  Did the victime move at the last minute into the blow?
 
The competition committee said ‘no’ to 21-different ideas about using instant replay on penalties.  It wouldn’t delay the game further.  Coaches would have to burn a challenge and be sure before they risked a timeout.  We’re not talking about constant interruption of games.
 
Instant replay, a chance to further help the game with the biggest plays that surely impact the outcome of games..
 
Upon further review, I think the competition committee made the wrong call.  
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