Friday, December 31, 2010

"My father will tell you that while other kids were watching Big Bird, I was watching Larry Bird."

I love me some Kevin Love and so this article on ESPN is obviously gonna get linked to on my this here blog. And now here's the link.

-Jason

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Jamaal Charles For MVP?

Here is a good ESPN Insider article on Jamaal Charles, luck for you all I'm all about free speech:

It's been a good 10 days for Jamaal Charles. On Dec. 11, Charles signed a five-year, $32.5 million contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs that guarantees him $13 million. On Sunday, Charles busted off the longest run of the weekend, an 80-yard scamper that helped seal a crucial 27-13 victory over the St. Louis Rams.

And today, he's hit another milestone with our two major metrics: According to DYAR (our player valuation metric, explained in depth here), Charles is the best running back in football this season. While DVOA (explained more here) has suggested that he's been the best per-play back in the NFL for a fair amount of the season, his performance against the Rams pushed him ahead of Arian Foster as the overall leader in rushing DYAR.

He won't be getting any bonuses for finishing in that spot, but you don't need advanced metrics to realize what a great season he's having. Charles is now averaging 6.4 yards per carry, something that no other running back has done with 200 or more carries in a season. Barry Sanders? Eric Dickerson? Adrian Peterson? Charles is doing more on a per-carry basis than any of them ever did. His 36.0 percent DVOA would also rank as the best performance by a back in a single season since 1993, the beginning of the DVOA Era.

The only reason Charles doesn't get recognition as the league's best back, of course, is Todd Haley. Although Haley deserves credit for assisting in the turnaround of Kansas City football over the past year and a half, his refusal to unleash Charles upon the league is mind-boggling. A look at the numbers makes comparisons between him and teammate Thomas Jones laughable. It's very clear that the Chiefs need to stop fooling around and give Charles the bulk of the workload -- now.

Most of the reasons given for the near-equal split of the carries between Jones (212 rushing attempts) and Charles (203 attempts) are nebulous. Jones is a reliable veteran and he's great in the locker room, but that doesn't make him a superior option at running back. Besides, it's not like Charles doesn't have safe hands: Jones has one fumble on 202 touches this year, but Charles has just one more on 228 touches.

Consider their performances in similar situations: On first-and-10, Jones has 105 carries for 515 yards and 11 conversions for a first down or touchdown, an impressive average of 4.9 yards per carry. Charles' 89 first-down carries have produced 683 yards and 19 conversions for an average of nearly 7.7 yards per attempt. That's better than some teams' passing games.

Jones is regarded as an effective goal-line back because of his gaudy touchdown totals, but research in Football Outsiders Almanac 2010 revealed Jones to be a consistently mediocre goal-line back who had one of the worst performances in league history for the New York Jets in 2007. Despite that, the team continues to pound the ball with Jones inside the goal line without getting very much in return. On his 15 carries inside the opposition's 5-yard line this year, Jones has five touchdowns and a first down. Charles, meanwhile, has three touchdowns on four such carries. In "power" situations, carries on third or fourth down with 2 yards or fewer to go for a first down (or 2 yards to go for a touchdown on first or second down), Jones has converted on 8 of 16 attempts. Charles is 5-for-7.

In addition to being the more productive receiver, Charles is by far the more explosive back. He has nine carries of 20 yards or more, while Jones has just three. Unlike some boom-or-bust backs, though, consistency isn't an issue for Charles. Our success rate metric measures how effective players are at keeping the team "on schedule" toward a new set of downs and, by that measure, 59 percent of Charles' runs have been successful, the second-best rate in the league. Only Chris Ivory has been better. Jones is in 18th place among qualifying backs, at 48 percent.

The only thing that stands out as an obvious reason to keep Jones in the fold is durability. Jones has been a sturdy back throughout his entire career, while Charles really only spent half of last season as the primary back for his team. You can make the anecdotal case that Charles benefits from the frequent breathers he gets, but there's also the anecdotal stories about running backs "getting into a rhythm" with regular work. Either way, even if Charles lost 10 percent of his value with an increase in his workload, he would still be a far better option than Jones has been this season. Charles deserves the plaudits he's received for a great season, but Haley's decision to limit his workload is keeping Charles from being recognized as an MVP candidate.

Update: Here's a link to another good ESPN article on this cool college player.

-jason

Saturday, December 18, 2010

MMA

Pettis is the shit right now, if you don't know, go watch this video and check that off the cage kick.

Then I was taking a look back on the NFL season and I thought I would give a link to Pro Football Referance and have you guys look at the passing stats this year. Not Phil Rivers killing it but the QB's who have started a game this year. What a mess.

-jason

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

An NFL Post!!?

First a super awesome play and then celebration right here by Desean Jackson

Second I am in love with Barry Cofield's taser sack dance, can't find a video though.
EDIT: Found the video here.

And finally get fucked Jay Cutler!

But here is the meat of this post. I am a Dolphins fan and I love Ronnie Brown, but he just isn't right anymore. He's missing that burst through the hole he used to have. Now in Madden I stole Jammal Charles from the Chiefs, it's pretty apparent they aren't going to let him leave this off season, but another young back destroying it this year is Darren Mcfadden. He looks alot like old Ronnie, not the fastest or the most powerful, but able to do it all. Not to mention he is familiar with the Wildcat. Now I think a change of scenery would be very nice for Mr. Mcfadden and I hope some way some how the Dolphins know this as well and make a play for him.

-Jason

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Quick Hits

I get first bowl hit after a dolphins loss. On a sidenote Suh from the Lions is a bad man.

-Jason