football
Talking about college and professional football daily. Chances are we hate your team.
Early Failures For Jim Harbaugh Not Indicative of His Potential
Jim Harbaugh seemed like the perfect man for Michigan. He was a record-setting quarterback for the Wolverines in the 1980s. He took over a decaying deer carcass known as Stanford football and won the Orange Bowl. He took the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl just two years removed from a 6-10 season. He was a winner, and Michigan badly needed one.
By Alec Lower8 years ago in Unbalanced
NFL Week 8 Picks Against the Spread
Many of the league’s teams will be halfway through the regular season after this week, and we got here fast. If it feels like you don’t really know which teams are good or bad yet, it’s because we don’t. An incredible 21 of the league’s 32 teams are within one game above or below .500, and each week, the underdogs continue to show up.
By Brandon Anderson8 years ago in Unbalanced
The Man... The Myth... The Legend: What Makes Saquon Barkley So Great
Heading into this weekend's game against the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Ohio State Buckeyes probably have one thing on their minds more than any other, and that’s stopping Saquon Barkley. Although the Buckeyes are quite fond of dominant ball carriers, Ezekiel Elliott and Carlos Hyde just to name a few, this go-around they’ll be tasked with slowing one down as opposed to helping one eat up turf. Penn State's “Big Back,” in ability and sheer physical size, won’t be that easy to slow down though. This will be for many reasons, but mostly because he is just that elite, and illustrates it every time he is on the field. Just like the elite backs before him and that now play on Sundays, he has special traits that make it inevitable that whenever he touches the ball, something good is bound to happen. What are those traits you might ask? I thought you never would.
By Kenneth Wilson8 years ago in Unbalanced
Are The L.A. Chargers A New Team?
Over the past week, the Los Angeles Chargers have not looked like the same team that was taking the field the first few weeks of the season. Outside of just the fact that they have managed to string together a few wins in a row, the team looks as if they were somehow reinvigorated on both sides of the ball. Some would say that it is just the bumps of an NFL season, leading them to believe that the Chargers were eventually going to get here after weathering an early adjustment period. Some are still in shock of what they are seeing, and it has them and many others asking, “Are the Chargers a new team?"
By Kenneth Wilson8 years ago in Unbalanced
Four College Football Teams That Are Better than Their Record
These four teams are playing at a higher level than their record indicates. Florida State (2-4) Florida State isn’t remotely close to the playoff contender it was expected to be. The loss of starting quarterback Deondre Francois in the very first game did nothing to help its cause, but it’s definitely not the only reason the Noles have already lost four times. That said though, this team is still better than its 2-4 record would indicate. Its four losses have come to teams that are a combined 25-4 (Louisville accounts for three of the losses), and three of them have been by six points of less. FSU has faced a daunting schedule, made more difficult by the hurricane that canceled its tune-up game against Louisiana-Monroe. Instead of that being backup quarterback James Blackman’s first start, it was NC State and one of the best front sevens in college football.
By Alec Lower8 years ago in Unbalanced
Best Fill-In QB for Aaron Rodgers
The world shook yesterday using Minnesota as its axis, but as we all know, there aren’t many earthquakes in the midwest. Some would say it was the earth-shattering hit put onto Aaron Rodgers by Minnesota Vikings LB Anthony Barr, a “dead fish” tackle as categorized by the crew on CBS’s postgame, one where the body makes contact and just goes “limp” as the tackler plows the person being tackled into the ground with their shoulder. Others would say it was the multitude of Packers fans and Wisconsinian’s alike, as their realities were not only altered, but torn away at the seams. No matter what caused the quake, the aftershock is this: Aaron Rodgers has a broken collarbone and is likely out for the rest of the regular season. He could never be "replaced," so we must be careful about our next words, but the next obvious question is, who is his fill-in?
By Kenneth Wilson8 years ago in Unbalanced
Pythagorean Yardage: A New Way to Evaluate CFB Teams
You’ve probably seen ESPN NY radio host Don La Greca’s rant against the use of the Pythagorean theorem in football. If you haven’t, you can watch it here. It’s highly amusing, especially considering that no one uses the Pythagorean theorem in football — most football players today learned it back in middle school (or at their senior year at UNC), and have never used it since. What La Greca might be trying to rant about is Pythagorean expectation: a formula used to predict a team’s win percentage based on point differentials. La Greca’s rant got me thinking — could we use Pythagorean expectation in football? And how can we apply it?
By John Edwards8 years ago in Unbalanced
'Balllllllinnnnn' — This is Why The Chiefs Should be Super Bowl Favorites. Top Story - October 2017.
Although only five weeks in, the NFL is starting to take shape. Aside from the black cloud that is “the national anthem controversy,” there have been plenty of other storylines for the NFL fan to salivate upon.
By Kenneth Wilson8 years ago in Unbalanced
