Considering Preseason Football

Some people seem to make a big deal about preseason football records.  Some people are concerned about the Patriots’ record in the preseason. The purpose of preseason games is not to win games (sorry Herm Edwards).  So why, besides making money, do they play those games that don’t count.

Exposure to the speed of the game.  Practice is important, but it is not the same as playing the game.  Players need to get used to the rhythm of the game.  You build endurance as well.  Deion Branch doesn’t need to catch passes in preseason.  It is Ochocinco that needs experience in the system.  He needs to be targeted.  Practice only gets you so far- you have to be able to execute the new system in game speed.  This is where Ochocinco is struggling, but hopefully he’ll get it down soon.

Work on situational football.  You tinker with what you do in situational football- red zone plays, 2 minute offense, special teams.  You want to get most of the kinks out before the games matter.  That’s why a guy like Woodhead or Welker would be out there risking injury late in a game.

Both of these mean there often isn’t a game plan to preseason games.  I was listening to a recent interview, I can remember who was talking, that mentioned Frank Reich.  It was amusing because a few days earlier I had used his record playoff comeback as a sermon illustration.  The former player commented that Reich was horrible in preseason because there was no game plan.  But the coaches weren’t evaluating Frank, they were just getting him used to the speed and rhythm of the game.  This brings us up to the another reason for preseason football.

With kick returns a thing of the past, so is Tate

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Considering the Stanley Cup Champions

I was pretty young during the Bruins’ hey-day.  Too young to remember it or enjoy it.  My dad took me to a few games at the Garden when I was a kid.  I love watching hockey live- TV?  Only during the playoffs.  During my adult life, they have been an exercise in frustration.  The times they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, they really looked over matched.  Since Cam Neely retired, they have been mired in mediocrity.  Anytime they had a star, they had nothing around him.  Eventually they would trade him for a bag of dry, crusty bread.

Last year I thought they had a chance.  Then Krejci went down and the Flyers took a series they had no chance in before that.  I can’t stand the Flyers, they ruined the Bruins’ chances too many times by injuring key players.

I was not sure how good this year’s Bruins were.  I seemed to have always checked the headlines when they were struggling.  Savard’s concussion was a bit of a blow.  They just didn’t look strong heading into the playoffs.

And they didn’t start strong.  Down 0-2 to the despised Canadians, it didn’t look good.  Amazingly they came back to take the series and advance to play … the Flyers.  It was a time of redemption.  This year’s series against them was what last year’s was supposed to be- a sweep.  That felt really good.

On to Tampa Bay.  The Lightening were not a good match up for the Bruins.  That was probably the toughest series the Bruins had.  It really could have gone either way.  The 7th and deciding game was full of great hockey.

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Considering the Red Sox Thus Far

It has been a strange season.  And it is less than 2 months old.

We have yet to see the 2010 Red Sox.  In the next few days we’ll see something close to the 2010 Red Sox.  If you were to remove 2 starting outfielders from any MLB team, they would struggle.  When they are players like Ellsbury and Cameron, you can understand why the Red Sox have struggled this year.

The players roaming LF and CF in their stead, while driving in some runs, have given up quite a few runs with abysmal defense.  The game against the Yankees earlier this week was marred by missed plays that Ellsbury and Cameron would have made.

Scutaro has done reasonably well as the leadoff man, but Ellsbury adds a whole different dimension.  With the threat of the stolen base, he messes with a pitcher’s head.  The loss of Ellsbury for most of this season has been tremendous.  You take Crawford and Upton out of the Rays’ line up for over and month and they are tanking it.  The only significant injury, if you want to call it that, the Rays have endured is to the bullpen.  Not quite the same as 2 everyday guys.

Their loss put a big strain on the pitching staff.  Here’s hoping that the pitchers not named Lester, Clay and Bard benefit from that increased defensive presence.

So, I think the Red Sox will look very different from this point on.  They will look far more like we expected them to look (except the offense has been better than some people thought it would be).  They are in the running for the Wild Card as the Yankees start to deal with multiple injuries as well.

While we can’t push the reset button, I think we’ll see a much improved team in the weeks and months ahead.  Maybe joy will return to some of the unrealistic fans of Fenway.

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Considering James Posey’s Move

I will confess that I was not excited about Posey signing with the Celtics last summer.  I hadn’t watched him play much.  I was wrong!  He played a vital role in the Celtics’ championship season this year.  Great defense, timely 3-point shooting and a great locker room guy.  He was VERY important.

So, he decided he needed a raise.  He did have the player option, so he went for it and opted out.  His agent talked about how this might be his last contract, and he wanted to make the most out of it.  That meant that he wanted 4 years.  The Celtics, leery of his age and wanting salary cap flexibility, were only offering 2 years.  He wanted to stay a Celtic but they couldn’t agree on the contract.  There didn’t seem to be a middle ground where years were concerned.

Lots of other teams wanted him.  And the New Orleans Hornets got him while he got his 4 years.  His $25 million dollar salary over those 4 years represents a nice raise for James.  And he does go to a very good team featuring Chris Paul.  So, he didn’t take the money to play on a lousy team.  I respect him.  It basically starts with the full MLE.

This puts the Celtics in a quandry.  Posey is gone.  Tony Allen didn’t quite turn out like we hoped and he is probably gone (he’s a FA).  Eddie House is probably gone too.  Scot Pollard was barely here, and he’s gone.  P.J. Brown will most likely retire.  Sam Cassell will probably go elsewhere.  This is why it is so hard to repeat in this era of sports- guys want to get paid (you’d think they were making $50,000 instead of millions of dollars).  Especially after they win a championship.

But we picked up Patrick O’Bryant (there is some sarcasm there if you missed it).  Problem is we have lost one of our best perimeter defenders, and 2 out of our 3 best 3 point shooters.  Not quite easy to replace, but essential to winning another championship.

So Danny, we really need you to pull something out of the hat.  What you got?  I don’t think our draft picks, even Giddens, are quite what we had in mind.  Cost-effective, yes.  But not adequate replacements for Posey and House.

The Free Agent Market?  Maggette, gone. Lue, gone.  We never had a shot at Brand or Davis.  There is always the Birdman, Chris Anderson.  But he’s a big man and not a guy who’ll create space by hitting mid-long range jump shots or back up Rondo.  What’s a GM to do, Danny?

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Considering Defense and Pitching

The vaunted Celtics’ defense showed up last night.  And they once again put a major league hurtin’ on the Hawks.  Whenever the Hawks made a good run the Celtics amped up the intensity and extended the lead.

The series is getting pretty chippy.  Most of that chippiness seems to involve Horford.  He could be the next Tree Rollins (who bit Danny Ainge, not the other way around as people erroneously recall it) or Bill Lambeir.  That he didn’t understand the Flagrant Foul rule is amazing to me.  He didn’t go for the ball, but a takedown.  Don’t get angry about it.  And there were plenty of angry Hawks near the end of that game.  This could get ugly soon.

The person who should have been angry was Paul Pierce.  Kudos to Paul for maintaining composure despite a series of bad calls and non-calls.  He couldn’t catch a break from the officials who seem determined to send the Hawks to the line 3-4 times as often as the Celtics.  I’m not buying the line the Czar (btw- could they forcibly retire him?) is selling.  “The Celtics are a jump shot team.”  Okay, during the Chris Ford era that was true.  But did you see how many times Pierce and Rondo penetrated?  Did you see how many times KG, Powe and Perkins took shots in the paint (drawing contact)?  There was no logical, sensible reason for the FT disparity.

In light of all that- what was KG doing on the floor with 3 minutes to go????  Is Rivers trying to get him hurt?  With that kind of lead the bench should have played the last 8-10 minutes.

Pitching.  I am amazed at this string of pitching performances by Buchholz, Beckett, Lester and Dice-K.  The Red Sox offense has been on vacation, and squandered Clay and Josh’s stellar performances.  Thankfully they provided just enough for Papelbon to get the wins with walk-off hits.  Suddenly the Sox pitchers are going deep and holding teams to almost nothing.  5 runs in 4 games I think.  This is the staff we expected heading into the season.  Is this just a fluke, or the real deal?  The latter I hope.

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