Dear Loyal SAFB Readers:
I apologize greatly for my delay in blogging, but I'm sure I'll make it up with the bitterness and venom loaded in the post below. Let's go right to the action and see how history does repeat itself.
Michigan - Notre Dame
First off, hats off to Denard Robinson. The guy's a stud. If he can stay healthy, he's the best offensive player in the Big Ten (including Prior). Running Rich Rod's innovative 4th grade offensive (put your best player at QB and let him do everything), he single-handed won the game. If Michigan had a kicker or an offensive line that knew how to hold and get away with it, the game would have never been close.
However, as much as Shoelace deserves credit, the blame equally goes to the Irish. After looking like a real football team last week, the Irish looked eerily like the team I've watched the last two years. And Brian Kelly, for all his talk about a new culture and new team, did alot of Charlie-like moves. Let's review some of them.
1. Not having backup QBs ready.
Classic Charlie move. The 2007 season debacle started in 2005-6, when Charlie was too busy dry humping BQ to play any reserves and then realized his team wasn't ready. Brian wasn't suppose to be like that. He constantly preaches about "next man in" on his team and that he won with 5 QBs at Cincinnati. Well BK had his chance on Saturday to show his stuff, and wow, what a disaster. I'm pretty Joe Montana (who's so crippled by football he can't play golf) would have done better than his son. Everyone knows their backups are either very young, talentless or both, but there should have been some safety package of plays for them to run. Not "let's run the same offense at 25% and wait for Michigan to pick them off."
2. Overly aggressive playcalling
Remember how Charlie got ripped for passing on 2nd and 3rd down in last year's Michigan up 3? At least he didn't run a flea-ficker with a freshman throwing his 1st pass EVER from his own 20. No wonder his body language looked bad on the sideline afterward. Even better was the decision to go for TD with 3 seconds left in the half. Montana had looked awful most of the game, but got lucky with Michigan's DBs going to sleep in a Hail Mary situation. Instead of taking the easy 3, Kelly rolled the dice and went for the TD. Not surprisingly, Montana put the throw in the 5th row. Good thing those 3 points didn't come back to haunt them (unless you consider how that would have entirely changed the last 5 minutes of the game).
3. Throwing Players Under the Bus
This is more of a Charlie/JC move. Going into halftime (after not Joe Jr. airmailed the goalpost), NBC sideline reporter asked Kelly what he could do to help his young quarterbacks. His answer: Nothing. They have to execute better. The coaches can't make the plays for them.
Nice leadership, Coach.
4. Watching the Defense Cave Late
If anything defined the last 2 years under Charlie, it was the inability to close games out, especially on the defensive side. Again, Kelly spent the whole offseason talking about how his players were going to compete for four quarters, how his teams were 22-1 when leading in the 4th, etc... Well, sure enough, Kelly had a change to prove how his team was different this year, and shockingly, nothing has changed. Instead of scoring with 11 seconds left, Michigan scored with 20 seconds left. That's definitely something to hang your hat on.
49ers - Seahawks
I could spend hours talking about how this was suppose to be the year the 49ers finally make it back to the playoffs. How everyone from Peter King to the Sports Guy to Bob Cobb thinks they're going to win worst division in the history of American sports. How, between playing the NFC West twice and the AFC West, they have at least 8 incredibly winnable games on their schedule (every NFC West opponent twice plus Oakland and Kansas City). How, for the first time in his career, Alex Smith has the same offensive coordinator for two years in row. How, with 2 first round picks, the team drafted 2 offensive lineman to ensure they could run the ball. Instead, I'll just link this
highlight. Good thing the defending SB Champs are coming to town to play on Monday Night and with 10 days to prepare. Is Shoelace draft-eligible yet?
Eagles - Packers
I'm not an Eagles fan so I won't go too long here. However, I have watch them enough to know they are an embarrassment on 3rd/4th down and shorts. Today was no different. I'm pretty sure Jerome Brown knew Dr. Doolittle was running a draw on 4th and 1, especially out of the shotgun with 2 TEs.
Roger Federer
For the 3rd straight slam, Sir Roger was so scared of playing Nadal that he choked before he could even face him. Federer-Nadal is the only match most people cared about, and Roger keeps dropping the ball. It can't be a rivalry if you don't actually play (remember those Dan vs. Dan Reebok commercials before the 92' Olympics. Roger's the Dan who choked and didn't even qualify for the Games.) Also, you can't really be the best player ever if you get challenged by somebody and you spent the last 5 years of your career avoiding them.
Phillies- Mets
I won't this on a downer. Sometimes history can be a good thing. Like Phillies making a big mid-season move and the guy steps up. Or the Mets being a bad team and
even worse people (is Oliver Perez shy or does he just hate America?)
