Blog Entries for oh_steve

I Blame Patriots Coaching Staff

oh_steve

Patriots Coaching Blows the Game

I think the Patriots Coaching staff deserves the blame for their shocking upset. I know they have some young, "genius" offensive coordinator, but that genius made two major errors. First, he fell in love with what should be the second or third option - short pass to Welker - and he was scared to force things to Randy Moss and second, he did not prepare the offense for the one situation which could cost them the g [...]

Super Bowl - Expectations vs the Facts

oh_steve

I'm surprised to see that in the ESPN Sportsnation poll only 61% of fans have the Patriots beating the Giants. This game is a classic case where people pick based on how the teams have played vs. pre-conceived expectations and not objective facts.

The Giants obviously have pulled off 3 upsets in the playoffs. They have totally exceeded expectations 4 games in a row. They outplayed the Bucs, Cowboys and Packers, but the fact is the Cowboys and Packers d [...]

I Hate College Football

oh_steve

I'm still processing West Virginia's demolition of Oklahoma. I know most people think this season was one of the best in history because of all the astounding upsets, but my personal opinion is ... this season sucked. I hate College Football.

Last season AccuScore's point spread prediction accuracy was 59% (386-268). That's pretty impressive. While college football totals have been good all season (56% for the year), I am pisse [...]

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

oh_steve

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

My prayers have been answered. Brian Bilick was fired today. Thank God.

Now the Ravens just need to:

Draft a big WR who you could catch a ball thrown 9 or 10 feet in the air. Our midget wideouts (Mark Clayton, Derrick Mason) cannot go up and get these passes which totally eliminates a major option in the passing game. Personally, I like Indiana's James Hardy.

Try to find a veter [...]

McFadden Better in the NFL than Tebow? Not so fast.

oh_steve

"Tebow may be the Heisman Trophy winner, but Darren McFadden will definitely be the better NFL player."

-- Quote from every single Football Analyst / Expert

This seems to have become a definite fact in the mind of everyone who ever thought about this year's Heisman Trophy race. Most people did not come up with this thought themselves. It just sounded good and people decided to go with it.

I think that Darren McFadden will [...]

PATRIOTS - RAVENS AFTERMATH

oh_steve

For 59 minutes I thought I'd have to change my name to "The Cooler". I am a huge Ravens fan, but the horrific play of my favorite team this season caused me to hop onto the Patriots bandwagon. I then watched the Ravens nearly beat the Patriots and realized that only my jinx could have caused such an amazing near upset.

In the end I'm glad the Patriots won. Here's why:

1. I was born in 1973 and don't care wha [...]

Disappointments and Pleasant Surprises

oh_steve

This blog has nothing but a few random thoughts primarily focused on things that have disappointed me and things that have pleasantly surprised me this Fall across sports.

As a glass is half empty type guy, I'll start with the disappointments. For the sake of my own sanity, I'm not even going to discuss my former favorite team, The Baltimore Ravens, since my feeling towards them goes way beyond disappointing.

DISAPPOINTME [...]

Baltimore Ravens Making History

oh_steve

Using total yards allowed as the primary statistic for ranking defenses the two worst defenses in the league were the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns.

The Baltimore Ravens played the Bengals at home last week and right now have played a half at home vs. the Browns. Besides a total meaningless TD last week, the Ravens haven't scored against the 2 worst defenses in the league at home.

The Ravens offense hasn't even gotten a first down in an entire ha [...]

Crazy Old Men

oh_steve

"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished," Shula said in an interview with the New York Daily News. "You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it."

This statement by Don Shula aggravated the hell out of Mike Vrabel and presumably many other New England Patriots players and coaches. I understand why they are annoyed by Shula.

Those "perfect" Dolphins always openly cheer against teams who [...]

What I Think Will Really Happen in the Patriots-Colts Game

oh_steve

What I Think Will Really Happen in the Patriots-Colts Game

I would say my own opinion matches AccuScore Simulation forecasts around 6 out of 10 times. In 3 of the 4 disagreements, the difference can be tied directly to AccuScore relying 100% on past performance statistics and myself relying on what I saw recently with my own eyes from the teams and players involved. In these cases there are players involved that don't have a long track record of performance [...]

Boston, Is There Room for One More on the Bandwagon?

oh_steve

My oldest brother and a few good friends from high school still live in Maryland, and we've all come to conclusion that our Ravens, despite their 4-3 record, are just as bad as the winless Dolphins and Rams.

Baltimore's 4 wins include:

Barely beating the Jets at home. If not for some unforgivable drops by Jets receivers they would have beaten the RavensBarely beating the Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald somehow fumbled and dropped passes. Kurt Warne [...]

Urlacher = Most Overrated Linebacker

oh_steve

The media and fans in Chicago are, for a lack of a better word, very nice. They love their star athletes and even when those athletes come up significantly short, you rarely see them try to run a guy out of town or bash them in the press.

I'm not from the Midwest and don't have those kind of polite sensibilities. I would describe myself as a classic hot-headed East Coaster. So I'm going to do Chicago fans a favor and vent about their "grea [...]

LA Football -- R.I.P.

oh_steve

Stanford 24, USC 23

Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6

USC and UCLA both lost these home games. It's universally accepted that of the 119 Division 1-A teams Stanford and Notre Dame were considered no higher than 100th in talent this season. Stanford was starting a backup Sophomore QB. Plus, they're Stanford. If this was swimming, golf or cross country then you'd have some talent, but this is football. Notre Dame started Fres [...]

I Will Eat My Own Foot, if...

oh_steve

Barring injury to Tom Brady or Randy Moss, I will eat my own foot if the Patriots don't win at least 14 games this season. I know, I know, predicting at least 14 wins isn't exactly a bold prediction, but I'm a man of my word and self-cannibalization isn't something to sneeze at.

In 10,000 simulated seasons the Patriots make the playoffs 9,997 times. That's right, there's still a chance that the Spy Gate will cost the Patriots a 2nd [...]

They are just kids

oh_steve

Colorado's shocking upset over Oklahoma taught me a valuable lesson about college football --- these are a bunch of kids playing.

Oklahoma was terrible in all phases of the game. Freshman Sam Bradford had his first bad game, the Sooners couldn't run the ball, the secondary made a ton of mental errors, the pass rush was ineffective, the return coverage stunk (especially on that final punt return by Colorado) and the return game was terible (muffed punt cost them the [...]

My Week 5 College Football Picks

oh_steve

So garbage time cost me my LSU over SC pick, but I still went 2-1 raising my college football record to 8-2. Until I have a bad week I'm going to continue focusing on college football and here's what I'm looking at this week:

AUBURN @ FLORIDA (Florida -18.5)

The worst thing to happen to Auburn is Florida putting up a lackluster performance at Ole Miss. Add that to Florida's tough loss at Auburn last year and you have a very motivated Gators team. [...]

My Week 4 College Football Picks

oh_steve

My College Football picks have been 6-1 this season so I'm going to do something which I usually hate to do --- try to ride a hot streak and stick with college football rather than "diversify" with NFL or MLB picks.

CLEMSON @ NC STATE: Pick Clemson (-7.0)

Clemson is like Poor Man's Oklahoma. Multiple, great Running Backs and an accurate passer in Cullen Harper who has yet to throw an interception in 276 career pass attempts. NC State has intercepted opposin [...]

Wizards, Go Get Kirilenko

oh_steve

I know 99.999% of you reading this have no interest in the moves that the Washington Wizards should make this off-season, but I'm going to go ahead and write a few words on why I'd love to see if the disgruntled Andrei Kirilenko would be available for Antawn Jamison.

Jamison can get a ton of points but with Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler we don't need another perimeter scorer. Jamison is listed as PF, but he is certainly not a low post scorer in the NBA like he was in [...]

Dear Jamal,

oh_steve

Dear Jamal,

I owe you an apology. While I still think some of those long runs you got against the Bengals were more a case where the Bengals defense is terrible, than your own ability, I have to say that you showed me that you were not "washed up" as I must've said around 1,000 times in the past 3 years. You started out poorly vs. Pittsburgh and for a quarter vs. the Bengals, but then you blitzed the Bengals for 216 yards!!!! Not only [...]

A Few Football Picks

oh_steve

My College Football picks were solid last week as I went with the heavy favorites LSU, Oklahoma and Penn State. In the NFL I personally lucked out locking in the Colts / Saints Over Under at 50. I picked the game to go over 52, which was wrong. I also whiffed taking Oakland to cover -1.5. Jon Kitna gave me the big f-you by passing for a ton of yards and touchdowns. I felt vindicated when the Raiders took the lead and Kitna had thrown to costly interception [...]