NFL: Week Ten Power Rankings

1. Green Bay Packers (8-0): Many thought that the Chargers would be the team that finally knocked the Packers down and gave them their first loss. Those people must have forgotten that Aaron Rodgers is a superhuman. Rodgers threw as many touchdowns (four) as incompletions against the Chargers. The defense allowed four passing touchdowns by Philip Rivers (three to Vincent Jackson), but they can afford to give up points as long as Rodgers is leading the offense. 

Last Week: #1

2. San Francisco 49ers (7-1): Another east coast road trip, another victory for the 49ers. It seems the most obvious trend for the 49ers 2011 season is “defying the odds”. Whether it be a rookie head coach, a quarterback who has always been considered a bust, or playing four games on the east coast, San Francisco is defying all odds. What has to be the sweetest part, they could clinch the NFC West by Thanksgiving. 

Last Week: #3

3. Baltimore Ravens (6-2): Late Sunday night, I started to put my power rankings together and I had the Ravens below the Steelers, then Torrey Smith made that catch with eight seconds remaining. The Ravens seem to have the biggest monkey off their back’s, not being able to beat the Steelers. Sweeping the series has put Baltimore in the drivers seat in the AFC North, and finds them as the best team in the AFC. 

Last Week: #5

4. New York Giants (6-2): What a great game on Sunday at Foxborough. Eli Manning may have shown that you can’t spell “Elite” without E-L-I. I’m not ready to jump the shark and call Manning elite, but he proved that he can do what it takes in crunch time to lead his team to victory. With Philadelphia’s loss last night, the Giants are in prime position to win the division. It will all depend on how New York performs against Green Bay, the Jets, San Francisco, and New Orleans in the coming weeks. 

Last Week: #6

5. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3): Tough loss for the Steelers. Just when it was looking like they were the team that went to the Super Bowl last year, Pittsburgh dropped a crucial game against Baltimore. They are only one game back in the division, but it will be important for them to bounce back next week and not lose any more ground to the Ravens. 

Last Week: #2

6. New England Patriots (5-3): Could it be that the Patriots aren’t as good as we all thought? I’m not ready to say that, not as long as #12 is still under center. However, New England showed Sunday that they can lose any game if it comes down to the defense in crunch time. The Patriots can play close games all they want, but the only way they’ll win is if it’s Brady and the offense going for the win, not the defense trying to hold it. 

Last Week: #4

7. New Orleans Saints (6-3): It just seemed all too predictable that the Saints and Drew Brees would bounce back against Tampa Bay after losing to the Rams last week. Brees is on pace to put up some crazy numbers this season, but the most exciting thing about the Saints is the division race between them and the Falcons as the season continues. 

Last Week: #7

8. New York Jets (5-3): The defense in green on Sunday in Buffalo was one that could win championships. The Jets and Rex Ryan completely dumbfounded the Bills offense, making Fred Jackson and Ryan Fitzpatrick completely irrelevant. Funny to think that three weeks ago the season looked lost to Gang Green, and now they can be in sole possession of first place with a victory over the Patriots this Sunday night. It should be a great one in New Jersey, so be sure to tune in. 

Last Week: #10

9. Detroit Lions (6-2): A bye week for the Lions this week (which really hurt my fantasy team. The schedule is soft for the time being, with Green Bay on Thanksgiving as the marquee matchup in the month of November. 

Last Week: #8

10. Houston Texans (6-3): I went back and forth between the Texans, Falcons, and Bengals for the number 10 spot in this weeks rankings. I went with the Texans because A) the Falcons dominated the Colts (big whoop), the Bengals smell more like a pretender than a contender this year, and B) the Texans are winning without their best player. Andre Johnson should be coming back this week, but the job that Arian Foster and Ben Tate have done shouldering the load on offense is very, very impressive. The Texans should make the playoffs out of the AFC South, and they’ll be a team to fear come January. 

Last Week: Not Ranked

PENN STATE UPDATE

Read the account for Victim 2 in the grand jury report. A graduate assistant walked into the locker room after hours to put away a new pair of sneakers he had just bought. He heared a "rythmic slapping sound" coming from the showers, where the lights had been on. The graduate assistant recognized the sounds to be that of a sexual nature, so he went to the shower to sneak a peak. Inside he saw Sandusky preforming anal sex on a 10-year-old boy. The graduate assistant left the scene and called his father, reporting what he had seen. The next day the graduate assistant reported to head coach Joe Paterno exactly what he had seen. Paterno reported the incident to the Penn State athletic director, who later told the assistant that the matter would be looked into. Paterno had gotten the information, it was under his watch, and all that was done was have Sandusky's locker room keys taken away. Stay classy, Penn State.

Hot Topic: Penn State and the Future of Joe Paterno

Happy Valley seems to have gotten a whole new meaning this week after former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was revealed to have sexual harassed eight boys in a span of fifteen years while affiliated with the football program. This morning we learned that Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and school vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz with both leave their posts amid the scandal. 

The details of the scandal are gut-wrenching, to say the least. Sandusky, who played for Penn State for four years and coached another 23 under Joe Paterno, started a charity for troubled boys called The Second Mile. The Second Mile was started in 1977 by Sandusky and it was affiliated with Penn State throughout the years. According to the Grand Jury’s report (which can be found HERE), Sandusky performed oral sex on the first victim, “more than 20 times through 2007 and 2008”. The first victim, named “Victim 1” in the grand jury’s report, began to stay in Sandusky’s basement during the summers (starting as early as 2005). Victim 1 was taken around the Penn State campus and to Philadelphia Eagles games by Sandusky. 

The details of the report or sickening, to the point that I don’t even want to talk about the other seven victims as I originally had planned. In terms of the court case and the fate of Sandusky, what may be the most terrible thing is that the first evidence was gathered thirteen years ago, and it took this long to bring this pervert to justice. The lives of he other boys could be drastically different if it weren’t for the preverbal “red tape” that causes court cases to be dragged out to no end. However, all that is to be saved for a justice and law blog, not a sports blog. 

Penn State has been, for years, an esteemed and respected program for college football. Joe Paterno, who just won his NCAA record 409th career game, has been coaching at Penn State for 61 years, with little to no controversy. Needless to say, Paterno’s legacy is now tarnished. The fact that Sandusky was once considered the “coach in waiting” to Paterno is a black mark against Penn State. However, with Sandusky being a longtime coordinator under Paterno, the question has to be raised as to whether or not Paterno had any knowledge of Sandusky’s actions throughout the 15 year period of his...extracurricular activities. Sandusky and Paterno have had to be close, for him to name Sandusky the coach in waiting and keep him on staff as the defensive coordinator for all those years. 

Sandusky retired in 1999 from the Penn State coaching staff, while still maintaining a relationship with the school and Paterno. Whether or not the 55 year old Sandusky retired due to age (not likely) or because Paterno found out of the despicable actions remain to be seen. 

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is the case of Jim Tressel and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Tressel was fired this past summer when it came out that he had knowledge that a number of his players, including captain quarterback Terrelle Pryor, had willingly accepted gifts from local Columbus businesses, most notably a tattoo parlor that gave Buckeye players free tattoos, violating NCAA rules. Tressel was an esteemed coach, but not as esteemed as the NCAA darling Paterno. 

If Paterno had any knowledge of the actions by his former coordinator, then he needs to fired immediately. Paterno no longer coaches on the sidelines at Penn State games, instead sitting in the coaches booth. Cameras during the game show that Paterno doesn’t even wear a headset or call plays during the games. It is as if Paterno is just a face for recruiting and the aura of Penn State. People at Penn State believe Paterno to be a God (or more fittingly, a cult leader). They worship him, as do members of the media (watch last weekends Sports Reporters on ESPN, where they all backed Paterno 100%). If the NCAA wants to play judge and jury with student athletes and the coaches that oversee them, then Paterno needs to be fired. Now, if JoePa had no idea of what was going on (not likely), then sure, he deserves a pass. But, it needs to be reiterated over and over again, Paterno can not continue to be head coach at Penn State if he failed to report Sandusky to authorities after learning the facts. Forget his legacy or the aura at Penn State, 15-year-old kids lives have been ruined because a sicko took advantage of them in their weakest moments. The NCAA needs to do the right thing. Knowing sports and how prominent figures are treated in today’s realm, don’t be shocked to see Paterno retire at the end of this season, cashing his last paycheck and riding off into the sunset forever considered one of the greatest, cleanest, coaches in sports history. 

NFL: Week 9 Picks

Matchup	Jarboe	Sloth	Matera
Falcons (-7.5) vs Colts Saints (-5.5) vs Tampa Bay Jets vs Buffalo (-2.5) Texans (-9) vs Browns Chiefs (-4.5) vs Miami 49ers (-5) vs Redskins Seahawks vs Cowboys (-11)	Falcons    Bucs    Jets    Browns    Chiefs    Redskins    Seahawks	Falcons    Saints    Bills    Browns    Chiefs    49ers    Seahawks	Falcons    Saints    Jets    Browns    Chiefs    49ers    Cowboys
Broncos vs Raiders (-7.5)	Broncos	Broncos	Raiders
Bengals vs Titans (-2.5)	Bengals	Bengals	Bengals
Rams vs Cardinals (-2.5)	Rams	Rams	Rams
Giants vs Patriots (-9)	Giants	Patriots	Giants
Packers (-6) vs Chargers	Packers	Packers	Chargers
Ravens vs Steelers (-3.5)	Ravens	Steelers	Steelers
Bears vs Eagles (-7.5)	Bears	Eagles	Eagles
Last Week	7-5-1	7-5-1	7-5-1
Season	51-46-6	50-47-6	49-48-6

NFL: "Elite" Quarterbacks

“Elite” is a term that is thrown around way too often in the NFL. This past week John Clayton of ESPN called Joe Flacco an elite quarterback. Last season analysts were already calling Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman elite. This is the preverbal “rock bottom” of throwing around the word elite to any NFL quarterback that has a good season. Both Freeman and Flacco had great seasons last year, with Freeman throwing for 25 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions. Flacco threw for 25 and 10 while leading the Ravens to the playoffs before losing in the divisional round. Through his career, Flacco has a 4-3 playoff record with a 60.7 completion percentage and 86.4 quarterback rating. Freeman, on the other hand, has never made it to the playoffs and boasts a 59.5 completion percentage and a 79.8 quarterback rating. 

To call these two elite at this stage in their careers is just wrong. Focusing on Flacco, he has without a doubt been the strongest quarterback the Ravens have had in their current history of having a dominant defense. Flacco does have a decent playoff record for a fourth year quarterback, but much of that can be attributed to the Ravens all-world defense. New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is said to be the weakest link on the Jets team. The Jets have a similar team structure to the Ravens; a team with a strong defense and emphasis on the running game. Through two and a half seasons, Sanchez has a 4-2 playoff record with a 72.9 quarterback rating and 54.7 completion percentage. Sanchez has thrown for less touchdowns and more interceptions than Flacco has, but the stats are not all that different. Factor in a difference 6% in completions and a 14 point difference in quarterback rating, the two players aren’t far off from each other. 

Using the same comparison as Flacco, Freeman has similar stats to Sanchez as well. Freeman and Sanchez both entered the league in 2009. With fewer games played, Freeman has thrown for three less interceptions and one more touchdown. Both players have 7,000 yards passing to their credit and a 6 yard average per attempt pass. Freeman has never led the Bucs to the playoffs, the closest being last season when they went 10-6 and missed the wild card by one game. 

The point of this is, if analysts are going to call guys like Flacco and Freeman elite, then using the same stats (playoffs, career qb rating, career passing stats), average quarterbacks like Sanchez and even Matt Cassel should be in the conversation as well. Which brings me to my point, none of those four players are elite. The purpose of the Sanchez comparisons were not to push that he is an elite quarterback. At this stage in his career, Sanchez is an average quarterback whose strongest skill is being a game manager. Looking at the stats and playoff records, guys like Freeman and Flacco cannot be called elite if they have similar resumes to game managers and decent quarterbacks like Sanchez and Cassel. 

In my eyes, being an “elite” quarterback puts you in the pantheon of NFL starters. They are the guys who when you see their team on the schedule, you cringe and think that they will beat you. Nobody looks at a game against the Ravens or Bucs and says, “Flacco/Freeman is going to beat us in that game”. The elite title should be reserved for quarterbacks who are the best players on their team, players who have been deep into the playoffs and remained the last man standing. Players who throughout their career have put up big numbers and big win totals. Not guys like Flacco, who one week could throw for 300+ yards and a few scores then the next week throw for 8 yards in an entire half (Jacksonville game). Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger. Those guys have won games single handidly. They take their teams to the playoffs year in and year out and have been the last man standing in February. Phillip Rivers could become elite. Eli Manning is right there, too. But right now, as we sit in week 9 of the 2011 season, the “elite” quarterback list starts and ends with those five names. Maybe in two, three, four years Flacco and Freeman could leap into the conversation, but to call them elite at this stage and with their current career stats is defacing the title all together.