Blogs – Page 184 – Keefe To The City

Dec 2, 2014

The Tom Coughlin Conundrum

Once upon a time the Giants were 3-2, riding a three-game winning streak, making it seem like that 0-2 start against the Lions and Cardinals was an early-season hiccup and making believers out of everyone,

Once upon a time the Giants were 3-2, riding a three-game winning streak, making it seem like that 0-2 start against the Lions and Cardinals was an early-season hiccup and making believers out of everyone, including me. Then again, it’s never been hard to make a believer out of me when it comes to the Giants.

Back-to-back losses to start the season? No problem, they’ll win the next three. Three straight wins over teams that are currently a combined 14-22? We’re the team to beat. Back-to-back losses to the Eagles and Cowboys before the bye week? We’ll use the bye to get healthy and bounce back. Run out of the building in Indianapolis? We just have to go 2-1 in the next three games. Meltdown in Seattle? We can beat the 49ers and Cowboys. Losses to the 49ers and Cowboys to fall to 3-8? We can win out and save Tom Coughlin’s job. Blowing a 21-point lead to the one-win Jaguars to lose a seventh straight game? (Crickets … crickets … crickets.)

That’s a lot of irrational thinking for someone who has spent his entire life watching this team pull the rug out from underneath me except for two unbelievable runs. And it’s because of those two runs that the world was kept safe from hearing about the 2007 Patriots every day forever and from keeping Brady and Belichick from immortality once again in 2011. If not for those two postseason runs, Brady and Belichick would likely be 5-0 in the Super Bowl and if the Packers had won the NFC Championship Game in 2007 or the 49ers had won it in 2011, they would be. And it’s because of those two runs that I believe in this team when I shouldn’t and it’s because of those two runs that even without the playoffs for a third straight year, I kept wanting Tom Coughlin to be the Giants’ head coach in 2015. But after Sunday, thinking that might be my most irrational thought of all.

Here’s how every Giants season has gone during the Tom Coughlin era:

2004: The Giants start the year 5-2 with Kurt Warner starting and showing Eli the ropes. They lose back-to-back games to fall to 5-4 and start planning for the future by letting Eli start, which causes unrest and division in the locker room. Eli goes 1-6 in his first seven starts in the league, but wins the final game of the year against the Cowboys. The Giants finish the year at 6-10 and don’t make the playoffs.

2005: It’s Eli’s first full year. The Giants go 6-2 in the first half of the season then go 5-3 in the second half of the season. They make the playoffs for the first time since blowing a 24-point lead against the 49ers in the 2002 playoffs. The Giants lose 23-0 at home in the first round of the playoffs, as Eli goes 10-for-18 for 113 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. The Giants finish with just 132 total yards in the game. Bad finish.

2006: The Giants start the year 6-2, but are now 7-7, and entering Week 16, for them to clinch a playoff berth, they need one of two scenarios to happen.

1. Win + Minnesota loss or tie + Atlanta loss + Philadelphia win or tie + Seattle win or tie.

OR

2. Win + Minnesota loss or tie + Atlanta loss + Philadelphia win or tie + San Francisco loss or tie.

The Giants lose 30-7 to the Saints, but the Vikings, Falcons, Seahawks and 49ers all lose too, and the Giants basically hit the biggest parlay ever. Only the Eagles win, so the Giants just need to win in Week 17 against the Redskins and they make the playoffs at 8-8.

The Giants beat the Redskins to get into the playoffs at 8-8 thanks to a Giants single-game rushing record of 234 yards (on just 23 carries) from Tiki Barber. The Giants are just the ninth team in history to reach the postseason without a winning record. After starting the year 6-2, they finish the year 2-6. Then they lose 23-20 to the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs on a David Akers 38-yard field goal with no time remaining.

2007: They start the year 0-2, but win six in a row after that. After their bye in Week 9, they finish the year 4-4, and with a 10-6 record, they are the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. They run the table on the road in the NFC playoffs, beating the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers and then beat the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl.

2008: They’re 11-1, but are now without Plaxico Burress for the rest of the year. The Giants finish the regular season 1-3 (they would have finished 0-4 if John Kasay didn’t miss a field goal for the Panthers in Week 16), but still get the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. They lose in the divisional round at home to the Eagles 23-11.

2009: They start the year 5-0, and then lose four games in a row. They come off their bye week to beat the Falcons in Week 11, but lose four of their last six games in embarrassing fashion to finish the year at 8-8, and miss the playoffs.

2010: They’re 6-2 after Week 9, but then they lose to Jon Kitna and the 2-6 Cowboys at home, and then they lose in Philadelphia the following week thanks to five turnovers and an Eli dive that turns into a fumble with the Giants down by seven and 2:51 left in the game. At 6-4, the Giants win three in a row, and have a chance to lock up the NFC East in Week 15 at home against the Eagles. They blow a 21-point lead with 7:18 left and lose. They have a chance to rebound the following week and still make the playoffs, but they lose 45-17 in Green Bay. In Week 17, they need a win against the Redskins and a Bears win over the Packers. They beat the Redskins 17-14 on the road, but the Bears lose to the Packers.

2011: The season was a Tony Romo to Miles Austin completion away from being maybe the worst collapse of them all. After losing to the 49ers, the Giants lost the next three games to start the second half of their season 0-4, dropping them to 6-6. We all know what happened in the final five minutes and 41 seconds in Dallas in Week 14 and after that, but no one knew all of that would happen. No one could fathom that all of that would happen and happen essentially the same way it did four years before.

2012: They start off 2-2, but win four straight to improve to 6-2. They lose four of their next six, but set themselves up where back-to-back wins in the final two weeks against the Ravens and Eagles will clinch them a playoff spot. They lose to the Ravens 33-14 (a week after losing 34-0 to the Falcons) and wind up beating the Eagles 42-7 in Week 17, but it doesn’t matter. A 9-7 season.

2013: They lose their first six games of the season before winning the next four. Somehow at 4-6 they control their own destiny if they can beat the Cowboys in Week 12. They have their chances to win the game, but tied at 21 with four seconds left, the Cowboys kick a 35-yard field goal to end the Giants’ season. After starting 0-4, they win seven of 10, but the 7-9 record is the worst since 2004.

And then there’s this season, which didn’t even have a second half to collapse.

Eli Manning was right when he said that Tom Coughlin didn’t fumble the ball like Eli did or the way Larry Donnell did. It wasn’t Tom Coughlin who couldn’t stop the Jaguars from getting down the field in the final minute to kick a go-ahead field goal. But it wasn’t just about the Jaguars game and it’s not about the Giants’ misfortune of having the most player on injured reserve in the entire NFL this season. It’s about a 3-2 start that’s become 3-9 this season. It’s about the 0-6 start last year and the 6-2 start that became a 9-7 finish in 2012. It’s about the second-half collapses that happened before the last two years when there wasn’t even a second half to collapse and it’s about Tom Coughlin being the oldest coach in the NFL and the idea that 11 years straight coaching any NFL team should be calculated in dog years and that 11 years straight coaching an NFL team in New York should be calculated goldfish years. Coughlin should be commended for his longevity in this city and should get to go out on his own terms, but that’s unlikely to happen now.

It’s not that all of the non-2007/2011 seasons are Tom Coughlin’s fault and it’s not like he is the sole reason for the team’s constant underachieving. The problem with the Giants isn’t even necessarily Tom Coughlin at all. The real problem is the situation the ownership has created.

Ownership gave their 11-year, two-time champion, 68-year-old head coach a first-year offensive coordinator he didn’t want and their general manager gave him an offensive line unfit for the NFL and a pass rush that’s mostly non-existent. They set themselves up for a scenario where their next head coach is either going to be someone with just one year of coordinator experience (Ben McAdoo) or one where a new head coach is going to have to agree to have McAdoo on his staff in order to be the Giants’ coach. Because after one year and with Eli Manning on his way to potentially posting career bests in completion percentage, touchdowns and interceptions, McAdoo isn’t going anywhere. So a new head coach (if it’s not McAdoo) is going to start in the same position Coughlin will have left in and after Sunday’s 2006-loss-to-Tennessee-esque performance, it’s likely that Coughlin is going to pay for the Giants’ fall from Super Bowl champions to 9-7 to 7-9 to whatever embarrassing record they finish with this season. And for the first time since the end of the 2010 season, I’m unsure of what I want when it comes to Coughlin as the head coach of the Giants.

The following is what I wrote at the end of the 2010 season.

This is what scares me about Tom Coughlin. I have wanted Tom Coughlin out several times, but who’s to say that Bill Cowher or anyone else they bring in will be better? Coughlin is the only coach that Eli Manning has every played under in the NFL, and I don’t know if right now is the right time to be changing the whole landscape of the coaching staff at this stage of Eli’s career.

There are many times when I wish I could confront Coughlin and just say, “Are you effing kidding me?” Like when he wasn’t ready for the Eagles’ onside kick or when he ripped into Matt Dodge in the middle of the field after DeSean Jackson’s punt return. Joe Girardi’s pitching changes usually get the most four-letter words out of my mouth, but Tom Coughlin’s decision making this season has taken the belt away from Girardi.

If Coughlin is fired, then so be it.

And if Coughlin isn’t fired, I’m OK with that too.

This time around it’s the same thing.

Blogs • Rangers

Nov 18, 2014

Martin St. Louis’ Huge Mistake

Stay afloat. That’s what the Rangers’ game plan has been through the first 18 games of the season thanks to injuries and that’s what they had somewhat done up until 10 days ago. But in

Stay afloat. That’s what the Rangers’ game plan has been through the first 18 games of the season thanks to injuries and that’s what they had somewhat done up until 10 days ago. But in their last six games over those 10 days, the Rangers have gone 1-3-2, earning just four of a possible 12 points and falling back to .500 at 7-7-4. Outside of opening night, when they beat the Western Conference-leading Blues on the road, the Rangers haven’t had their expected top-six defensemen in the lineup in the same game. And until Ryan McDonagh gets back, they won’t. And until then, they are going to have to do a better job preventing five-goal games from happening.

Monday night against the Lightning was the fifth time this season the Rangers allowed at least five goals in a game (they only allowed five goals or more eight times last season) and it was the wrong time to fill Madison Square Garden with defensive brain farts and turnovers. It was the homecoming for Ryan Callahan (and to a lesser extent, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman) and the first time the former captain who ran himself out of town with his absurd contract expectations and inability to compromise led to the trade for Martin St. Louis. And with that trade came the Rangers’ first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 20 years. But for some people, like The Hockey News’ Adam Proteau, the Lightning won a trade that is barely eight months old because right now the Lightning have a better record than the Rangers and that’s all that matters in the sports world where every day we have to figure out who is the best player or who is the next champion or who is a Hall of Famer without letting things play out. I thought the hockey world was different from the other sports when it came to nonsensical debates and premature career projections, and maybe it is, but not when it comes to Proteau.

Proteau (the man who once tweeted that Matt Cooke has been victimized by hitting Marc Savard in the head and ending Savard’s career and altering his life) wrote a “column” (I use this word loosely) titled “When he left the Lightning for the Rangers, Martin St. Louis made a huge mistake” in which the headline was nearly longer than the actual 545-word column, so let’s look at Proteau’s column (in italics).

After watching Martin St-Louis play his former teammates in Tampa Bay for the first time since the March trade that sent him to the New York Rangers for Ryan Callahan, and two draft picks, I’m pretty confident in saying this:

St-Louis made a huge mistake.

After reading the first 46 words, I’m pretty confident in saying this:

Adam Proteau made a huge mistake.

If the Rangers don’t blow two-goal leads in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final or blow a third-period lead in Game 5 or if they had won any of the three overtime games in the series or if Chris Kreider could score on a breakaway or if Dan Girardi wasn’t Dan Girardi then these words would have never been written by Proteau. (Actually, they probably still would have been.) But the Rangers lost the Stanley Cup Final, so in return we not only got a Rangers’ Stanley Cup loss, but these 545 words from Proteau.

Yes, it’s only one game, but the Lightning’s thorough 5-1 pounding of the Blueshirts Monday was a demonstration of (a) all the things that make Tampa such a favorite of pundits this off-season, and (b) many of the things that make some of us question the Rangers as a serious Stanley Cup contender.

After watching one game (a pretty large sample size), I’m going to make a serious proclamation and then I’m going to say it’s still only one game after I make that proclamation. That’s quite the strategy for someone to try to prove their point.

St-Louis did score the home side’s only goal at Madison Square Garden, but, in a sign from the hockey gods as to which side is likely to emerge over time as the ultimate winner of the trade, Callahan scored two goals for the Bolts.

St. Louis did score the Rangers’ only goal on Monday, so that’s good because if someone else had scored the Rangers’ only goal then this “huge mistake” that St. Louis made would have been that much bigger. But he scored and not another Ranger, so it’s only a “huge mistake” for now.

I wish I had known that the hockey gods would be giving us some foreshadowing at the Garden on Monday night because I could have accomplished a lot of other things between 7 and 10 p.m. instead of watching a poor defensive effort from a makeshift Rangers defense, highlighted by Dan Girardi taking a nice Sunday Skate in the neutral zone on what became a breakaway and then sliding and rolling around on the ice rather than clearing the front of the net on Ryan Callahan’s first goal. But that goal wasn’t Girardi’s fault or him proving that his six-year, $33 million extension wasn’t the best idea. That goal was the result of the hockey gods foreshadowing the eventual outcome of the St. Louis trade.

More importantly, the Lightning also got another banner night from Steven Stamkos, who scored once and added two assists while being the most dangerous player on the ice. Why St-Louis would want to leave a team with a young superstar for one that didn’t have anyone comparable is head-scratching, to say the least.

Does Proteau really think St. Louis cares about Steven Stamkos, playing with Stamkos, not playing with Stamkos or playing for a team without Stamkos?

St. Louis is from Quebec. He went to school at Vermont. His wife is from Greenwich, Conn. where the family lives in the offseason and St. Louis runs a summer hockey camp at the Twin Rinks in Stamford, Conn. Madison Square Garden is about 31.7 miles from Greenwich and 45 minutes on Metro North.

Not only did St. Louis likely want to live in one location to be with his entire family year-round, but I’m sure his wife also had some impact on his decision making because it is his wife and I’m going to assume that she has some say in the decisions St. Louis makes. Is Friday Night Lights not available in Canada? Eric and Tammy Taylor could teach you a few valuable life lessons.

But it’s more than just the presence of Stamkos that makes St-Louis’ decision to leave Tampa Bay a regrettable one.

Again, I’m sure 39-year-old St. Louis, who has a wife and kids and whose home is about 31.7 miles from the Garden, really took into account the idea of playing hockey with a 24-year-old when weighing his family’s own future.

The Rangers have had some serious injuries to deal with this season (including key cogs Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh), but even with those players in the lineup, the Lightning are deeper at forward and on defense and have more blossoming young talent (including Jonathan Drouin, Victor Hedman, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov, among others) than the Blueshirts.

Effing St. Louis! How could he have not known the Rangers would be dealing with injuries to Derek Stepan, Dan Boyle and Ryan McDonagh to start the season? How could he not have realized that the Rangers’ best two defensemen and their first-line center would miss significant time to begin the season?

And with goalie Ben Bishop proving his superb 2013-14 campaign was no fluke, you can’t even argue the Rangers have a significant advantage in net anymore – at least, not when star Henrik Lundqvist is struggling to find his consistency so far this year.

I originally thought Proteau using one game as a reason to decide who won the St. Louis was as bad it was going to get? But then he went and wrote that St. Louis should have put the notion of playing hockey with a 24-year-old over what’s best for his own family and I thought that was as bad as it would get, but then that goalie comparison happened.

After Monday’s loss, Henrik Lundqvist is 7-5-3 with a 2.68 goals-against average and .910 save percentage. No, those aren’t Lundqvist-like numbers, but when you have Matt Hunwick playing in all but two games so far and Michael Kostka, Dylan McIlrath and Connor Allen dressing and playing because of injuries and John Moore deciding to Scott Stevens people then you’re not going to have Vezina-like numbers. But if we’re going to sit here and say Ben Bishop is better than Henrik Lundqvist because of six weeks of a season then I guess Jakub Voracek is a better scorer than Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist is a better pure goal scorer than Alexander Ovechkin and Nick Foligno is a 1.13 points-per-game player.

At the time of the trade, many speculated St-Louis’ relationship with Bolts GM Steve Yzerman over not initially being named to Canada’s 2014 Olympic roster had deteriorated to the point he demanded to be moved, and perhaps that’s true. As one of the greatest players in modern memory, he had accumulated enough power to ask out if he truly believed he didn’t fit with the organization any longer. However, the circumstances surrounding St-Louis’ departure have never been made fully clear. Until they are, all we can judge St-Louis on are the facts apparent to us.

The “circumstances surrounding St. Louis’ departure have never been made fully clear” but I’m going to write a 545-word column about why he shouldn’t have asked for a trade! The only thing we’re missing from Proteau is the use of “having said that” in this masterpiece.

And right now, the fact is St-Louis left a team that looks to be a force with which to reckon for many years to come for a team whose leading scorer, Rick Nash, will be 31 years old next summer and whose backbone between the pipes will be 33 in March.

The Lightning finished 46-27-9 last year and were swept in the first round by the Canadiens, who the Rangers eliminated two rounds later. This year they are 13-4-2 and are currently second in the Atlantic and there’s a good chance they will face the Bruins or Canadiens or both in the first round this year. Then I guess we’ll find out about the reckoning. (The Lightning also have to play 63 games before they get to that point before they can show off their “force”.)

At 39 years old, he wants to win now, but does anyone see the Rangers as a serious threat to win the Eastern Conference again this year? At this stage, there’s no guarantee they’ll even be in the post-season.

I think Proteau needs to get the idea that St. Louis “wants to win now” out of his head. I’m sure he would like to win and is doing everything he can to win, but if he retires without winning again, he will retire with his name on the Cup, over 1,000 career points (he’s at 995 now) and at least one Hart, one Lester B. Pearson, two Art Rosses, three Lady Byngs and six All-Star appearances.

There’s no guarantee the Rangers will be in the postseason this year. There’s also no guarantee the Lightning will either. Or the Canadiens. Or the Blackhawks. Or the Kings. Or the Blues. Or any team.

St-Louis has had a Hall-of-Fame worthy career, but even Hall-of-Famers make mistakes. And thus far, his choice to leave Stamkos & Co. behind looks to be the worst move he could’ve made.

Martin St. Louis helped lead the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final in June and gave Rangers fans their best season in two decades. He lives in Greenwich, Conn. with his wife and kids. He is making $5 million this year to play hockey for a living and gets to do his job at Madison Square Garden. If demanding a trade to get all of these things is the worst decision he could have made then I need to start making bad decisions.

Blogs • Giants • NFL

Nov 13, 2014

NFL Week 11 Picks

I usually make the picture for the weekly picks of either Eli Manning or Tom Coughlin, but I couldn’t help but choose Perry Fewell looking like most people walking through McCarran International Airport in Las

I usually make the picture for the weekly picks of either Eli Manning or Tom Coughlin, but I couldn’t help but choose Perry Fewell looking like most people walking through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on their way to their return flight home. Fewell’s look and demeanor sum up how his defense played last week in Seattle against the run, how the Giants’ season is going and how this picks season has been going for the most part.

I’m running out of time to right the ship that has been devastated by one bad week back in Week 2 and it’s going to take the opposite of that Week 2 performance to fully recover. I have been waiting eight weeks, or basically half the season, for that week to come and it hasn’t, but it needs to.

(Home team in caps)

MIAMI -4 over Buffalo
Last week, I picked the Bengals thinking they would continue to be the Saints 2.0 with their play at Paul Brown Stadium, but that didn’t go so well. (At least I was able to salvage my pick by taking the Browns money line at +250, which is all that really matters.) But this week it’s time get back on track with the old bread and butter that is Thursday Night Football.

CLEVELAND -3.5 over Houston
Well, it looks like the Johnny Manziel era isn’t going to start soon in Cleveland and maybe it never will at this rate. I wish the Jets had taken Manziel with the 18th pick in the draft because it would have meant the Johnny Manziel NFL era would already be underway and it would have meant absolute chaos and a media circus around the Jets, which is exactly what Woody Johnson wants and craves. But if I can’t beat the Browns by picking against them in hopes of Johnny Football becoming the starting quarterback, I might as well join them.

MINNESOTA +3.5 over Chicago
I will pick any team against the Bears right now. Any team. It doesn’t matter who.

KANSAS CITY -2 over Seattle
I have no idea what to do with this game and that should mean “take the points” but I have seen what happens when Russell Wilson has to throw the ball and the Chiefs’ defense isn’t going to roll over like the Giants did a week ago.

CAROLINA -1 over Atlanta
The Falcons are 3-6 and two of their three wins came against the Buccaneers. So if the Buccaneers didn’t exist, the Falcons would be a one-win team, so they should be treated as a one-win team. The disgusting part about the one-win Falcons is that they are still not only alive but they are one game, ONE GAME, back of the Saints for the NFC South lead. I SAID ONE GAME! The NFC South has become the 2010 NFC West and there’s a chance that the South could be won by a team with possibly a .500 record at best. But it would be pretty amazing if the 7-9 Saints (or the 8-8 Saints) host the wild-card Seahawks during Wild-Card Weekend at the Superdome where no team is going to go to and win a playoff game.

As for the Panthers, what’s a more undeserving nickname in sports: James Shields as “Big Game James” or Cam Newton as “Superman”?

NEW ORLEANS -7.5 over Cincinnati
So you know that thing I always say about the Saints? This thing:

The Saints’ last home loss with Sean Payton as head coach came in Week 17 in 2010 when they had nothing to play for. Including the playoffs, with Payton as head coach, the Saints have won all of their home games since that loss and here are their margins of victory in those games: 19, 6, 11, 25, 18, 3, 32, 18, 21, 24, 6, 17, 28, 29, 14, 25, 11, 55, 7 and 17.

Well, I can’t use that anymore. But I can use a new version of it!

The Saints’ have last one home game with Sean Payton as head coach since Week 17 in 2010 when they had nothing to play for. Including the playoffs, with Payton as head coach, the Saints have all but one of their home games since that loss and here are their margins of victory in those games: 19, 6, 11, 25, 18, 3, 32, 18, 21, 24, 6, 17, 28, 29, 14, 25, 11, 55, 7 and 17.

Andy Dalton going on the road after going 10-for-33 for 86 yards and three interceptions and not just on the road, but to the Superdome of all places? The local games and the Red Zone channel might not be enough for me this weekend, knowing that this game is on, I might have to buy DirecTV just for it.

Tampa Bay +7.5 over WASHINGTON
The Redskins are 3-6. Their wins are against the Jaguars, the Titans and the Tony Romo-less Cowboys. RG III has played two games this year and the Redskins have lost both. Which of those facts could give anyone the idea that they should be favored by more than a touchdown against any team?

Denver -10.5 over ST. LOUIS
I’m sure Peyton Manning misses playing in a dome in a controlled environment where the weather is always perfect and wind is non-existent. Peyton might not be at his best when he’s at Gillette Stadium or the stage is its biggest, but he is at his best when he’s in a perfect setting.

NEW YORK GIANTS +4.5 over San Francisco
Now that the season is over (well, unless the Giants run the table … and even that might not be enough with the way the NFC is this year), I don’t have any real reason to pick the Giants.

Oakland +10.5 over SAN DIEGO
At 5-1, the Chargers were considered to possibly be the best team in the NFL, at least for a week. But since Week 6 their season has unraveled with three straight losses to the Chiefs (23-20), Broncos (35-21) and Dolphins (37-0!!!) I always, always, always take the points when the Raiders play the Chargers except when I didn’t back in Week 6 and the Chargers barely got past the winless Raiders with a 31-28 win. This time I’m going back to the basics and that is picking against Philip Rivers to cover spreads.

GREEN BAY -6.5 over Philadelphia
Mark Sanchez did to me on Monday night what I dared him to do, which is the same thing I dared Colt McCoy to do a few Monday nights ago. To my defense, I made my pick in that Cowboys-Redskins game before Tony Romo was ruled out for the game and I made my pick for the Eagles-Panthers game under the assumption that the Panthers were an average football team capable of shutting down a quarterback the Jets chose Geno Smith over. Now the entire world has seemingly forgot how bad Sanchez was with the Jets and he is suddenly a fan favorite in Philadelphia, a city that preys on the exact type of player Sanchez was with the Jets. That Mark Sanchez will show up in Green Bay.

Detroit +1 over ARIZONA
When Drew Stanton filled in for Carson Palmer in Weeks 2-4, the Cardinals knew it was temporary and he knew it was temporary. There wasn’t any pressure on a backup quarterback, who hadn’t started a game in four years, to beat the Giants or 49ers (which he did) or try to be competitive against the Broncos (which he really wasn’t). But Stanton came out of that three-game stretch at 2-1 and two years after being cut by the Jets in favor of Tim Tebow, he proved that he could not only be a viable backup in the event of another Palmer injury, but that he could win in the league. The difference now is that there isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel for Stanton’s starting time. Palmer isn’t coming back this season and who knows what he will be like next year as a 35-year-old coming off a torn ACL. Stanton is now expected to win because he did in September and he’s expected to lead a 7-1 team to the playoffs and his head coach didn’t do him any favors by saying the Cardinals could win the Super Bowl with him as their quarterback. No pressure or anything, Drew.

New England +2.5 over INDIANAPOLIS
It would probably be a good idea to stop making the Patriots underdogs.

Last week: 6-7-0
Season: 69-77-1

Blogs • Giants • NFL

Nov 6, 2014

NFL Week 10 Picks

I’m thinking of going to a comedy show in New York on Sunday night, which would force me to miss the end of the Giants-Seahawks game. So I have to make the decision between moving

I’m thinking of going to a comedy show in New York on Sunday night, which would force me to miss the end of the Giants-Seahawks game. So I have to make the decision between moving from the couch on a football Sunday, going out, paying for a round-trip cab, admission to the show and food and drinks or staying on the couch and finish watching a three-hour free comedy show live from Seattle on FOX. As much of a joke the Giants-Seahawks game will likely and how many laughs it should produce for non-Giants fans, I think it’s a better idea to get out out of the apartment just as the Seahawks backups finish off the Giants as the Giants finally start to throw the ball for the majority of their plays once the game is out of reach.

Speaking of comedy, this week on his Monday Morning Podcast, Bill Burr said, “If you bet on football this year, you’re out of your mind. At this point you should just cut your losses and go home.” I wish I could, Bill. I wish I could go. But there are still eight weeks of the regular season to pick and then the playoffs.

(Home team in caps)

CINCINNATI -6.5 over Cleveland
The Bengals have done their transformation to become the AFC Saints in that the Paul Brown Stadium Bengals are a much different team than the Outside the Paul Brown Stadium Bengals are. The Bengals are 4-0-1 at home this year and 1-2 on the road after going 8-0 at home and 3-5 on the road last year. This season, the Bengals’ average home score is a 30.8-20.2 win and their average road score is a 28.7-13.3 loss. That’s good news if the Bengals can win the NFC North and play their first playoff game at home. The problem is the Bengals is five or their last seven games are on the road.

Miami +3 over DETROIT
It’s never a good idea to buy into the Miami Dolphins. You would be better off buying into a start-up newspaper in 2014 than the Dolphins given their history of strong starts and late-season collapses, but the problem with this game is the Lions are the Dolphins of the NFC. So I can either buy into the start-up newspaper in 2014 (Dolphins) or pay for an AOL account in 2014 (Lions). That’s why I’m taking the points.

Buffalo +2.5 over KANSAS CITY
If the Giants aren’t going to do anything this year, which they’re not, then I might as well be an honorary Bills fan for the rest of the season. I can’t get behind the Browns because them winning means Johnny Manziel’s career will only be delayed longer and I can’t get behind the Chiefs because of Alex Smith even though it would make me happy to know that the city of Philadelphia and Eagles fans would have to watch Andy Reid win the Super Bowl. Aside from the Bills, those are the other long-suffering franchises that look like postseason contenders that I don’t have any direct hatred against, but how could I not pull for the Bills and Kyle “David Grohl” Orton to go on a run with the Bills?

San Francisco +5 over NEW ORLEANS
The Saints are going to win this game. That’s a fact. How do I know this? Let me say it again:

The Saints’ last home loss with Sean Payton as head coach came in Week 17 in 2010 when they had nothing to play for. Including the playoffs, with Payton as head coach, the Saints have won all of their home games since that loss and here are their margins of victory in those games: 19, 6, 11, 25, 18, 3, 32, 18, 21, 24, 6, 17, 28, 29, 14, 25, 11, 55, 7 and 17.

BALTIMORE -10 over Tennessee
I have done everything I can to continuously pick against the Ravens, but there are times when you have to see the difference between right and wrong and smart and dumb. And taking Tennessee, even to cover a double-digit spread, is dumb though I’m sure every sharp in Vegas would disagree given the state of the NFL.

Pittsburgh -6.5 over NEW YORK JETS
The Jets have lost eight straight games. They have fans wasting money on planes to fly over practice and promote John Idzik’s firing while other fans are wasting their money to use a billboard outside MetLife to promote the same cause. Michael Vick, who clearly wants no part of actually playing football anymore and would rather just hang out on the sidelines and collect a paycheck (who can blame him?) is starting over the most recent Jets franchise quarterback. And their head coach continues to say he sees good things each week even though the team’s only win came in Week 1 over the still-winless Raiders.

The Steelers were 3-3 and coming off a 21-point loss to the Browns before winning three straight games and saving their season and putting themselves in prime position to return to the playoffs. They have scored 94 points in the last two weeks against two contenders in the Colts and Ravens and Ben Roethlisberger threw for 862 yards and 12 touchdowns without an interception in those two games. And they have possibly the best receiver in the league in Antonio Brown ready to face the worst secondary imaginable.

So what does all of this mean? It means that this game will likely be decided by a field goal because the NFL is insane. But it also means it’s no time to be backing the Jets and asking them to cover anything less than a touchdown.

Tampa Bay +2 over ATLANTA
Somewhere someone who isn’t a Buccaneers fan or a Falcons fan is going to bet on this game and watch it in its entirety. Think about that.

Denver -12.5 over OAKLAND
I don’t want to say Peyton Manning is a fraud, so I will let other people say it for me. But the best regular-season quarterback in history went into Gillette Stadium and got embarrassed once again last week. Sure, he put up 429 yards and got his numbers in before it was over, but his team lost by 22 points in a game that could be the difference in a trip to the Super Bowl and an AFC Championship Game loss because of home-field advantage. I picked the Broncos last week because I didn’t want to back the Patriots even though I envisioned the game that played out playing out because it has so many times Peyton has gone to New England. Let’s hope that performance doesn’t mean a Super Bowl appearance for the Patriots because then I’m done with Peyton.

ARIZONA -7.5 over St. Louis
The Arizona Cardinals are the best team in football.

The Arizona Cardinals are the best team in football?

I wrote that sentence out with both a period and a question mark because after I wrote it the first time, I read it back to myself like Ron Burgundy reading a line on the prompter incorrectly because of a misplaced question mark at the end of it. Are the Cardinals the best team in football? Their record says they are at 7-1, leading the NFC West that was supposed to be for Seattle or San Francisco to win. I’m happy for the Cardinals after missing the playoffs last year despite a 10-win season while the Packers played a first-round home game at 8-7-1 for winning the NFC North, but I’m not sure a team with Carson Palmer as their quarterback can ever be considered the best team in the league at any time even if their record says they are.

New York Giants +9.5 over SEATTLE
The Giants’ offense currently consists of a first-round pick wide receiver who has played four career games, two wide receivers who can’t catch, a tight end who played quarterback in college, a tight end who was out of football in 2013, a rookie running back and a running back who thought his NFL career was over a little over a year ago. The absolute worst place for a team with that offensive personnel to go is Seattle, so if you’re thinking of sitting back at 4:25 on Sunday and watching the Giants, you might want to make other plans for around 5:00. I think I’m going to.

GREEN BAY -7.5 over Chicago
The last time the Bears won in Green Bay was Oct. 7, 2007 in Week 5. It was Brian Griese playing for a benched Rex Grossman against Brett Favre. The Bears have cost me picks and actual money so many times this season that I will be pulling for a Packers blowout on Sunday night as if it were the Giants playing in the Super Bowl.

Carolina +6 over PHILADELPHIA
The Panthers aren’t good. But you’re asking me to pick Mark Sanchez to win a game he starts by a touchdown.

Last Week: 4-9-0
Season: 63-70-1

Blogs • Yankees

Nov 5, 2014

The El Duque Documentary

El Duque was always my favorite Yankees pitcher. His first start for the Yankees came on June 3, 1998 when I was 11 years old and at the end of sixth grade. His high leg

El Duque was always my favorite Yankees pitcher. His first start for the Yankees came on June 3, 1998 when I was 11 years old and at the end of sixth grade. His high leg kick, the way he changed speeds and the way he pitched in big games helped mold me into the fan I am today.

When I heard there would be an ESPN 30 for 30 titled Brothers in Exile on El Duque and his brother Livan Hernandez, I treated it with the hype and anticipation I have to see Dumber and Dumber To. And because it was a pleasant trip down memory lane to when the Yankees won every year coming off this miserable season, I decided to write down my thoughts as I watched how El Duque got to the Yankee Stadium mound on June 3, 1998.

– The El Duque leap over the base line is an every-fifth-day moment I miss. His half-jog/half-spring to the mound and back to the dugout each inning as if he couldn’t wait to get out there and pitch and get the next inning moving so he could get back out there again is also missed.

– Since I don’t speak Spanish and a lot of the documentary is in Spanish with subtitles, it makes it hard to write down everything. And with Time Warner Cable’s DVR being as reliable as CC Sabathia will be in 2015, there’s a lot of starting and stopping and fast forwarding and rewinding going on when El Duque speaks. This makes me realize how poor of a decision it was to have him in the booth this season on YES where he was asked question after question by Michael Kay, who had no sense of how difficult it was for El Duque to understand English and produce an English answer, even as Paul O’Neill kept bailing him out. I wouldn’t expect anything better from Michael Kay as the lead of a broadcast team.

– I wonder if El Duque still has the No. 40 Yankees jersey someone in Cuba gave him that he wore all the time. Seeing that put a cherry on top of his Yankees career as did him saying, “I was a Yankees fan and that’s the team I wanted to play for.”

– Brian Cashman missed on Hideki Irabu and if Gordon Blakeley hadn’t convinced him that El Duque was worth signing, the Yankees probably don’t win the 1998 World Series and who knows about the 1999 and 2000 World Series. Thank you, Gordon Blakley and sorry to see you go to Atlanta this offseason.

– El Duque getting $6.6 million as a stud international free agent has to be the best bargain of all time when you consider what the Yankees got in return on their investment. Four years after El Duque’s deal, Jose Contreras got a four-year, $32 million deal from the Yankees. Nine years after El Duque’s deal, Kei Igawa got a five-year, $20 million deal from the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka made $22 million in 2014 and will again in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

– On the day of El Duque’s MLB debut on June 3, 1998 at Yankee Stadium, they show his locker in the clubhouse and whose locker and nameplate is right next to his? Homer Bush! Aside from having no power (11 home runs in 1,377 career plate appearances), Bush did hit .348/.389/.416 in 64 games for the Yankees over three seasons and did contribute two stolen bases in the 1998 playoffs.

– Joe Torre said, “I was a little skeptical because I didn’t know what kind of command he had” going into that debut and El Duque posted the following line: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR. After the performance, Torre said, “He could pretty much put the ball wherever he wanted to.”

– It brings back memories to see the Yankees on MSG rather than YES and Al Trautwig doing the pregame and postgame shows and Ken Singleton and Jim Kaat alone in the booth. Can we go back to a Michael Kay-less booth? Give the lead play-by-play to Singleton and rotate the others in. Please?

– Bill Madden questioning whether El Duque would be able to handle the pressure of pitching in New York and in the postseason after El Duque had been harassed by the Cuban government, put his life on the line by defecting the country, ended up on an island for four days with no sign of being rescued and then needing a Hail Mary from agent Joe Cubas to work out to be given freedom says a lot about Bill Madden.

I believe what made El Duque the ultimate postseason pitcher was that the idea of pitching in the playoffs was a joke to him when it came to pressure and an insult to the word “pressure”. He could have easily lost his life trying to leave Cuba and if he had been caught, his life would have been over anyway as he would have spent the rest of it in jail. He sacrificed the chance of never seeing his children and family ever again and left his entire life behind him to come to the United States. I’m pretty sure facing Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome in a baseball game didn’t exactly faze him.

– Brian Cashman refers to the Indians as the odds-on favorite in the 1998 ALCS with a 2-1 series lead. That’s clearly Cashman just downplaying the situation as he does with every player or game considering the Yankees went 114-48 and the Indians went 89-73. We don’t need to downplay everything, Cashman. I’m sure if the Yankees were to trade for Mike Trout today, Cashman would say, “We’re getting an average defender who can hit for contact with a little bit of power, but his ceiling isn’t that high.”

– I remember reading about Joe Torre saying how calm El Duque was on the morning of Game 4 knowing that a loss would likely lead to the end of the Yankees’ season and I was able to find a quote from Torre referencing that day.

“I saw El Duque at a buffet luncheon at the hotel, and he was passing out plates of food to people as if he was one of the waiters. He seemed pretty relaxed to me.”

Apparently El Duque was relaxed because here is his line from the Game 4 start: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K.

That ALCS Game 4 start helped continue the late-90s Yankees dynasty as the Yankees would win three straight games in the series to advance to the World Series (and win four straight there). Had El Duque not done what he did in Cleveland, the Yankees trail 3-1 in the series and are likely one championship less and that 114-win regular season is remembered much differently.

– El Duque made 14 playoff starts from the Yankees from 1998-2002 and 2004 and went 9-2 including an 8-0 start to that record. Here is his line from those 14 starts: 90.1 IP, 70 H, 30 R, 28 ER, 51 BB, 93 K, 8 HR, 2.99 ERA, 1.340 WHIP.

He also made three relief appearances from the Yankees (one in Game 5 of the 2000 ALDS and two in the 2002 ALDS). Here is his line in relief (he took the loss in Game 3 of the 2001 ALCS): 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2 HR, 2.70 ERA, 0.890 WHIP.

– It was fitting that El Duque started and won the clinching game of the World Series a year after his brother helped the Marlins to the World Series while El Duque was still in Cuba listening to the Marlins win over the Indians on a radio. His line from Game 4: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K.

– Ricky Ledee gets a hit in the footage of Game 4 of the World Series and Joe Buck says, “There’s another hit for Ledee.” Ledee went 6-for-10 with three doubles and four RBIs in the series. I miss the days of role players on the Yankees getting big hits and overachieving and never have I missed them more than after a year of Brian Roberts, Kelly Johnson and Stephen Drew.

– The documentary doesn’t show any El Duque highlights from after 1998, but I will always remember how fun he was to watch pitch in 2004, going 8-2 with a 3.30 ERA in his return. (He could have had more than eight wins, but got a no-decision in a seven-inning shutout, 10-strikeout game and another no-decision in a six-inning, two-run game.) He started Game 4 of the ALCS and would have earned the series-clinching win if not for some ninth-inning comeback that I vaguely remember happening.

– The following fall in 2005, I was in Boston at college on a Friday (Oct. 7) waiting to go home for Columbus Day Weekend and go to Game 4 of the Yankees-Angels ALDS. I was watching Game 3 of the Red Sox-White Sox ALDS. The White Sox led the series 2-0 and in the bottom of the sixth, the Red Sox trailed 4-3 with the bases loaded and no outs after Damaso Marte couldn’t retire any of the three hitters he faced (single, walk, walk). El Duque came in to relieve Marte. He got Jason Varitek to pop out in foul territory. Then he got Tony Graffanino to pop out to short. And then in a full count against Johnny Damon, he struck him out swinging on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. El Duque returned in the seventh to pitch a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and came back out for the eighth and pitched around a two-out single.

El Duque went into the worst kind of jam there is against the defending champions and . It brought a smile to my face, not only because he ended the Red Sox’ season, but because he was doing what he had always done: pitched his best when it mattered the most. He was just doing it for another team even though he should have only ever done it for the Yankees.