"Weekly" NFL Update

The question on every NFL fan's mind is this:

Could the writer and/or any given reader of this blog throw for 300 yards in an NFL game? To be clear, I don't think I, or any other schmuck could be a good NFL quarterback...but 300 yards? It doesn't seem so hard anymore.

14 quarterbacks threw for at least 300 yards in Week 1, four threw for at least 400 and Tom Brady threw for 517 yards. I remember those days (last year?) where throwing for 300 yards was a good game. Now NOT doing it makes you think, "...did he get hurt?"

Out of the 400+ guys, Tom Brady and Drew Brees make sense. That's what their teams do and that's why they're good. The other two? Chad Henne and Cam Newton. They both lost and Newton is the only one out of the two (I actually got to watch both games mostly) who I would say played "well." I ALSO remember a time when 30 pass attempts made me think, "Hmm...they threw a lot." After two weeks, only seven starting quarterbacks are averaging under 30 pass attempts per game (Matt Cassell, Jason Campbell, Kevin Kolb, Alex Smith, Donovan McNabb, Matt Schaub, and Andy Dalton who was hurt during his first game). Shocking players not included in this list include: Mark Sanchez (34 attempts per game), Colt McCoy (36), Kyle Orton (35.5), Tarvaris Jackson (33), and Kerry Collins (34.5). Those attempts don't even include the ones where these crappy quarterbacks drop back and get sacked and fumble.

Why am I getting worked up about this? Ehh, I don't know...wait, yes I do.

Here is my list of things I hate that this trend violates:

1. Willingly being a poor man's version of something.

The New England Patriots.

That team exists already. They've invented (or at least perfected) a certain type of offense. They know this system better than you, whoever you are, and will therefore be better than you at it.

Let's say you are the Denver Broncos. Do you really think Kyle Orton should throw the ball that many times? And, more importantly, if that is your plan, to mimic the Patriots...how is that a plan? You just can't beat a guy who invented a system with a bastardized version of that system. And on a personal note, I find it disgusting that you would try.

As much as I am not a "Tebow Guy," why not play him if for no other reason but to be different? I don't know if he's good, but he is at least he's a unique player. This same spiel goes for every Midwestern team (I'm lookin' at you, Browns and Bengals) who say they are going to run the "West Coast Offense." Don't you think by the time something with that name gets to the Midwest, EVERYONE has heard of it? Sheesh.

Side note: The Raiders are a team that don't throw the ball the much and it seems to suit them. Instead of Terrelle Pryor, why not trade something to Tebow? He would be cool with that team, in my opinion. Plus, maybe the "bad guy" image of the Raiders would balance out Tebow's Christian annoying-ness. Just a thought.

2. General Pussifying.

Football is the best sport ever invented by far. It involves everything great. It requires so much planning and so much toughness and so much athleticism, there's just nothing not to like.

However, with this new all pass all the time all Belichick era, the league is slipping away from the toughness pillar with much more emphasis on the planning and a little bit more on the athleticism. You can kind of just throw the ball up now and hope for pass interference and once enough flags fly, corner backs just won't even try. Once the plan is set and the physical preparations are made, I like to have a feeling that there's no adjustment left to make but focus more and try harder. I don't want to lose that.

3. It's hard to go back.

Generally, people don't want to be hurt. Whether it's emotional stress or physical pain, once the unpleasant stimuli are removed for long periods of time you're going to get used to it. It's painful to run the ball. It's basically a war of attrition. You're running over and over to wear out the opponent.

Football is getting further away from boxing and closer to basketball. Maybe it's not even that bad, just different. It's just going to be hard to go back to the brutal way of playing from the way that puts up points and hurts less. Football people are nuts though, if they decide it's the way to win they'll probably run it again.

Eliminator Pick

This is a new thing that I was going to do the last couple of weeks but forgot. I mean, it's not new. I'm just going to let you know my eliminator pick and why.

For anyone confused, the Eliminator Challenge is a game where you pick one team straight up in an NFL game every week but once you pick a team, you can't pick that team for the rest of the year. If you get all the way through, you win...or whatever.

Week 1 I picked the 49ers at home over the Seahawks and Week 2 I picked the Steelers at home over...the Seahawks. Anti-Seahawks might take me places this year. Anyway, here's my pick this week.

San Diego at home over Kansas City

This game is such a lock, but there's more to this game than it being a lock.

I don't trust San Diego all the time even though they are a good team so I'm not overly worried about not being able to use them later in the year. Plus, I'd like to get to the end of the year. By the end of the season, I'd like to hope I have a better feel for things.

And why is this a lock? Kansas City is a bad team who lost three of their best four players for the season playing on the road against a really good team who lost their last game. Put it in the books!