Big Foosball Gamez

I thought about writing about Open Social, but I'll leave that to Terry for now. Besides, football is more interesting, at least this week. I'm very pleased to see Florida's defense finally stop somebody, even if it was just Vanderbilt. Vandy's defense was ranked #14 in the country, which just shows how good Florida's offense is. Last week's game against Georgia would have been a lot different if Tebow hadn't got his shoulder dinged the week before. He's Florida's "conservative" offense, i.e. their ball control offense. The running game is an option running game, i.e. it is geared towards big plays. I'm not saying Florida would have won, that would be crazy. But Georgia had plenty of time to expose Florida's weak run defense, and boy they did a good job of that!

Anyways, the NFL is where all the hype is this week. That's one nice thing in college football. You have a lot of "game of the year" type games, seemingly every week. That's a direct consequence of the no playoff system where every loss is potentially catastrophic. People want a playoff (me included,) but just remember what you'll lose if you get that. This week has a game of the year in the NFL: New England at Indianapolis.

I hate New England. I'm a Dolphin fan (please no snickers) so I have to hate them. But I respect them. I respect using technology to "cheat". I so wish Miami was doing that, though I wouldn't want them to get caught. They really need those draft picks. I also respect running up the score. This is not high school or even college (both places where you see much more running up the score) where you could maybe have sympathy on an over-matched team. Nope, it's the NFL: home of the Marxist salary cap. Everyone is making crazy money, including the coaches. There's no room for sympathy. Now, personally I would probably be more careful about exposing my starters to injuries in meaningless games, but whatever. That's their risk to take.

All that being said... I hate New England. I don't mind Peyton Manning too much. After all, he never beat Florida and he can never change that. So go Indy.

On a more a logical basis, New England's offense doesn't match up that well to Indy's defense. The whole premise of Cover-2 is to minimize big plays. It takes a big armed QB to hit the deep gaps in a good Cover-2, and Tom Brady does not have a big arm. That doesn't take anything away from him. Brady is one a few great QB's without a great arm. Cover-2 with good safety play should neutralize Moss and Stallworth. I still think teams should be able to run on Indy, but have a hard time believing that New England will be the first team to do that effectively.

Indy's offense is more diverse and has been executing against defenses every bit as good as New England's. Recent history seems to indicate that Belichick has not been able to "solve" Peyton Manning for the last couple of years. Without a strategic advantage, New England's defense does not stack up well against Indy's offense. The opposite cannot be said. So, clearly you gotta go with the home-dog Colts.