Random Thoughts from Around the NFL

Tony Romo is tearing up the league again and is on pace for 38 touchdown passes. Only five players in the history of the NFL have thrown 38+ TD’s in a season (Tom Brady will be the sixth player with five more). It’s funny how much the NFL scouts miss or just get players wrong. Romo wasn’t even drafted out of Eastern Illinois, yet he looks like one of the better young quarterbacks in football. It just goes to show you that arm strength and size are often overrated while skills like accuracy, mobility and instincts are probably more important to a quarterback’s success.

Marvin Harrison scored the first touchdown of this NFL season in a win over New Orleans back in September, but has not scored since. Harrison has scored 10+ TD’s in eight straight years, but that streak will surely come to an end this year. Considering Harrison will be 36 years old next summer and the Colts have younger receivers in Reggie Wayne and Anthony Gonzalez, Harrison might never score double digit touchdowns again.

Sometimes I forget that Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III played in the same backfield for a couple of seasons at the University of Minnesota. Yeah, that’s right. They became the first duo in NCAA Division I-A history to both run for over 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons. No disrespect to Craig James and Eric Dickerson, who formed the “Pony Express” at SMU in the 1980’s, but Barber and Maroney have to be the sickest RB tandem in college football history.

Did you hear the comments by Don Shula this week about New England’s possible undefeated season? Shula thinks that an undefeated campaign by the Patriots would be tarnished because of the “Spygate” incident. Shula was the coach of the Dolphins team that went 17-0 in 1972 so his comments have to be viewed as sour grapes. But if you dig a little deeper there seems to be more to it. Bill Belichick is a close friend with Nick Saban, who coached the Dolphins from 2005-06 and then bolted for the head coaching position at Alabama. That’s the same place where Shula’s son, Mike Shula, was fired from at the end of the 2006 season.

Jamal Lewis had four touchdowns in Sunday’s overtime win against Seattle, but do not be fooled – he did a terrible job running the ball. Lewis finished with 20 carries for 37 yards with a long run of only five yards.

With all apologies to LaDainian Tomlinson, Joseph Addai is currently the best running back in the AFC. I know the Colts have Peyton Manning and a great offense in general, but Addai looks like a special player. He is much more elusive than I thought and has great balance and cut-back ability to go along with outstanding speed.

Adrian Peterson is on pace to smash Eric Dickerson’s rookie rushing record of 1,808 yards and might break Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105. I’ve never seen a running back hit a hole with such explosiveness like Peterson does. If you’re in a keeper league and at the bottom of the standings, do whatever it takes to acquire Peterson. He will be the first pick in most fantasy drafts next season.

Is it really that difficult to know when and when not to go for a 2-pt conversion? In Sunday’s Green Bay-Kansas City game, Chiefs’ head coach Herm Edwards decided to go for “2” with five minutes remaining and the score 20-16. What a terrible choice!!! Making the 2-point conversion for a six-point lead does not give you an advantage over kicking the extra point for a five-point lead. But it is a big deal if you fail on the 2-pt conversion and the lead stays at 4 because a touchdown would give the other team a 3-point lead instead of a 2-point lead (if you had just kicked the extra point instead of going or “2”). It ended up being a moot point because the Packers scored 17 unanswered points, but Edwards should be ashamed of himself for making such an awful decision.

Mentioned this in our upgrade column on Greg Jennings, but he looks like one of the fastest receivers in the league. He routinely runs away from defensive backs and should be considered a top-20 WR moving forward.

My boy Mizzle made an astute observation about last week’s Dallas-Philly point spread. He was amazed that the spread was only 3.5 points when the NE-Indy line was 5.5 points. Mizzle went on to explain that the Dallas-Philly line should have been at least 5.5 points, if not more, because Philly was a struggling team and Dallas had just one loss and that was to the mighty Patriots, who Vegas obviously loves right now with an inflated spread against the defending Super Bowl champs. Mizzle finished the convo with a classic line, “Oddsmakers brain farted on that one worse than the 40-year Old Virgin when he said how women’s breasts feel like bags of sand.” Thanks Miz, you’re the man son.

If I see one more coach punt on 4th down in a blowout situation, I am going to lose my mind. Denver’s Mike Shanahan decided to punt on 4th down and 12 from Detroit’s 45-yard line late in the third quarter of a 30-0 game. The punt went down to the Detroit 17-yard line so the Broncos gained 28 freakin’ yards of field position. But Mike, you’re trailing by 30 points so who cares about field position!!! Just man up and go for it!!! In general, coaches punt way too much on 4th down. If I were a head coach and faced with 4th down and a manageable distance at midfield or better, I would go for it every single time regardless of the score, quarter, etc