The Extra Point

TechLife wrote up a great review of Stick Arena from X-Gen Studios.  It is such an easy game to play and talk about letting out aggression.  Nothing like letting a stick figure have it.  Pretend it’s your boss or maybe your neighbor.  Hell, invite your boss or neighbor for a little networked game play.  A fun time can be had by all, in just five minutes and for free!

Here’s the reason you read The Extra Point, at the end of the year you get all sorts of great lists, and this year is no exception.  Over at ValleyWag, they had a post about 13 great blogs you are not reading. 

Well we have selected the one blog you should be reading and aren’t.  TonyHomo.com.

Remember twice-lost-his-job-to-a-better-backup Drew Bledsoe?  Yes that Drew Bledsoe who first due to injury lost to already-in-the-hall-of-fame Tom “Superbowl” Brady, and now to been-sitting-on-the-sidelines-for-years Tony “Don’t-call-me-rookie” Romo. 

Well good ol’ Drew decided to let the fans hear his side of the story.  Drew is an articulate writer and passionate about his topic.  His blog, starting with the title, pulls no punches

Gosh I’m getting so angry just thinking about all this bad publicity. I better go relax and play some Madden ‘07 on the new PS3. My ‘96 Patriots team vs. Homo’s Cowboys. It’s gonna be a bloodbath. And not just because I play as Homo and run backwards for safeties on every play, but because teams rely on veteran leadership and experience to win the big game and Homo has none. (Though the -742 rushing yards doesn’t help!)

Another classic post is his open letter to Byron Leftwich after gettting benched for David Garrad, an excerpt talking about when they both played the Houston Texans:

Actually, let me just pull up some stats from both of our games… I was 17-28, 168 yards passing, two scores and no picks. Solid outing. Then again, when am I not? You were 14-28 for 125 yards and no scores. Hm. That’s actually pretty embarrassing, dude.

After the loss to the Eagles I am sure Drew has a great post coming up.

With the huge popularity of Fantasy Football, I just wanted to throw out an idea for those of you in leagues run by popular websites like ESPN or Yahoo.  Fantasy is supposed to mimic real life, right?  Player does well in the real game, then he does well in Fantasy.  Then why, why, why do the big leagues all reward Touchdown’s way more than other stats!  Look at these two lines:

49 rushing yards  1-7 receiving  2 TD (3,14)

92 rushing yards  0 Rec  1 TD (14)

Who helped the team win more?  And don’t get stuck on “Well, points win you ballgames, so it is the guy who got you more points”.  I mean, honestly, would a coach rather have the first, or the second line.  Yards get you the ability to score 3-yards TD’s.  Yet, and here is the kicker, in a league such as ESPN, the line on top scores 16 points, while the line on the bottom scores 15.  (just for ccomparison sake, the league I am in the bottom line wins 24 points to 20 points). 

Marion Barber (the 1st line above is his Week 9 line) is outscoring Jullius Jones (the 2nd line is Mr. Jones Week 9 line) in ESPN fantasy 138 - 130.  Whose season stats would you rather have?

567 yds. rushing  14 rec.  146 rec. yards  

993 yds. rushing  8 rec.  132 rec. yards

Pretty easy choice, huh?  (again, Marion Barber on the top, Julius Jones on the bottom)   But because Barber is the short-yardage favorite of his coach, he has that aforementioned 138-130 Fantasy Point lead.  Stop the insanity people!  Fantasy is a lot more fun rooting for every play - not just rooting for who gets the ball when the Cowboys are inside the 5!  If your league doesn’t account for this, get together with some buddies and make up some fair rules, where every play has an impact on the bottom fantasy-line. 

Just in case you were wondering, in The ExtraPoint league, Jones has 263 points to Barber’s 206, which looking at the above lines, seems a lot more fair.  Before next football season, we will post our rules so you can see how much fun it is to have every play accounted for.   

So who is your NFL MVP for 2006?  As the regular season draws to an end, I think there is only one two.  Drew Brees is slightly off pace of Dan Marino’s single season record for passing yards (5,084 yards).  He plays on a new team that was expected to be bad, and just happy to have a home again.  He has already thrown 55 passes more than 20+ yards, shattering his personal best of 46 with three games to go.  Of those passes, 17 were 40+ yards, nearly double his previous best of 9.  And of course his team is winning.

On the other hand LaDanian Tomlinson has already broken the single season TD record and still has 3 games to go.  He is set to shatter the record.  His team was also supposed to be rebuilding after losing their Pro-Bowl QB (mentioned above) and going with a new quaterback.  Instead they have command of the AFC and thanks to Tomlinson are poised to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  Tomlinson with his current mark of 29 TDs has never had more than 18.

 So in my mind they are co-MVP…what do you think?  Leave a comment.

Indy - Not only do their coach and QB not inspire the team with their wishy-washy leadership, but their fans don’t care that much either.  After their showing yesterday, you would think the blogs would be a little harsher.

San Diego - As a true believer that Walter Payton was the best all-around NFL RB ever, this guy is making me possibly re-think that.

Jacksonville - I almost fell out of my chair when I heard this stat yesterday (look at this list for Taylor, Fred).  How can this be?  He almost single-handedly killed 3 separate fantasy teams for me, and now he is 21st all-time, passing Hall-of-Famers and about to go over 10,000 yards??!!

Detroit - I have a friend who is a Lions fan, and my only question to him is “Why?”  

Tennessee - Is it too early to bestow the greatest accolade known to football QB’s on to Vince Young? 

Denver - As much as I don’t like Plummer, I am starting to think maybe it wasn’t all his fault…  Good thing Shanahan is a genius (seriously, how long is he going to be able to survive on that label and winning 2 SB’s with Elway and Davis).

Chicago - And finally, let me steal a page from Kornheiser (boy, that is a phrase you just don’t say every day).  I need a big day from Grossman to win my playoff game this week.  Which Grossman will we see tonight - the stud of the early season, or the mass of suckitude of late?

Tom Brady, apparently is not happy enough being the NFL superstar, 3 time Superbowl champ, and basically the lock for Hall of Fame QB even if he quit the NFL today.  He is now suing Yahoo! for their use of his likeness in some Fantasy Football ads.  Oh Yahoo, will you ever learn. 

Seen on The Smoking Gun, Web Pro News, Deadspin 

Watching football yesterday, I saw a ton of mistakes that really boggle the mind when you realize most of the people playing and/or coaching have been around football for at least 10-20 years, and countless games.  I can’t believe some of these people still have jobs.

Case in point, in Sunday night’s Denver/Seattle game, what happened to Denver coaches at the end of the 1st Half?  Here’s the breakdown:

Denver is driving, holding a 3-point lead.

Cutler passes to Jackson for a 9-yard gain to the Seattle 25.  It is now 4th-and-1 with about :47 seconds left on the clock.  Denver still has 2 timeouts left.  So, naturally, the Denver coaches and players just look around at each other for the next 20-something seconds - then call time out.  Coaching genius move #1.  So now there are :24 seconds left, and they send in the FG unit for a 43-yard FG, well within Elam’s range.  Except Elam and Plummer run the fake!  Elam gains 2 yards, stays in bounds, and hurts himself in the process (genius move #2).  They then wait to take their last timeout until there was 1 second on the clock, and Elam kicks a 41-yards FG.  Genius move #3.

I honestly couldn’t beleive what I saw.  Someone should lose a job.  Al Michaels suggested maybe Plummer/Elam made an automatic fake call based on the defense, which maybe is true, but I just don’t see it.  You are telling me that Denver has an auto-call to run outside with a 36-year old K with hamstring and calf problems?!!  Plus, nobody is talking about it!  Why isn’t anyone in the press asking what the hell happened?  Also, given Denver’s defensive problems of late in the 2nd Half, trying to do something with the ball on the Seattle 25 with :48 seconds left and 2 timeouts might make sense.  Either Shanahan, the Special Teams Coordinator, or Plummer/Elam were at fault on this play, and someone should be taking the blame.   

I recently profiled Ze Frank’s The Show over at TechLife.  If you read The Extra Point, you will like Ze.  Here is how I would define him…

If Ze worked for Yahoo! he would the exclamation point.

If Ze worked for American Idol he would shoot himself.

If Ze worked for The Man he would be the armpit, hairy.

If Ze worked for Ron Burgandy he would be a whale’s vagina.

If Ze read these he would admit me to the League of Awesomness with a rank of Captain, second class. (watch The Show for this one).

If you are at all confused you will like The Show.

  Which one is Cris?

Many expected Bryant ‘Gumball’ to be bad at calling games, and he hasn’t disappointed.  Most people thought Cris Collinsworth would make up for it, though, as in his other network duties, he usually seems to be the smartest ex-player in the room, bar none.  Plus, he has done booth duty before.  That is why his gaffes have been perplexing. 

He seemed to not know the down again last night, after making this same error last week.  At the end of the 1st Half, Steve McNair spiked the ball on 3rd and 1 with :13 seconds remaining, ball on the Cincy 11.  Collinsworth then said that they had time for one more try at the end zone, they had to do it, blah blah blah, etc., etc.  Obviously, the only problem with this was that it was now 4th AND 1!!  They had to try for the FG, as they had no more downs left for one more TD try.  C’mon!!  That is a Madden-type move, and Collinsworth should be better. 

It has been confirmed - Drew Brees announced today that he indeed has sold his soul to the Devil.  People (and fantasy owners of teams that did not draft him) have long suspected this to be true of the 6 foot tall, weak-armed QB who in his first couple of seasons couldn’t do much of anything.  Brees announced the deal was actually signed way back in high school, allowing him to become a state champion, college stud, and now NFL multi-millionaire.  Brees and the Devil decided to go public with the information this week after Brees passed for over 500 yards on Sunday less than a year after having 12 surgical screws put into his throwing shoulder.  Lucifer, King of Darkness, stated “I said, screw it (pardon the pun), I am just going to make him incredible this year even though he should be barely able to lift his arm.  It was my idea to put him on pace for 5,000 yards - Drew didn’t think he could do it”.  Apparently, the only negative for Brees, asides from an eternity of pain and suffering once his career is over, is that the Devil made him wear a mark of some kind.  Neither the Devil nor Brees explained why they chose a caterpillar on his right cheek as the distinguishing mark.