- 08:20 AM
- 11/22/09
Cleveland against Detroit should be an awe-inspiring game, though possibly not for the right reasons.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:54 PM on November 19
former member of the Mullet Club for Men
MacGruber!
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:22 PM on October 31
I've just noticed my third link is the same as my second link - see... the wildcat really does always look the same.
This is what the third link was supposed to point to :
The same Chris Brown, again, in discussion with Mike Tanier on Football Outsiders, in a Dolphins-Jets game walkthrough. (Skip past the (accurate) nonsense about the new NFL red zone channel.)
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:18 PM on October 21
"I am old enough to have gone to a high school that played a combination of wing-T and single wing.
...
The wildcat is really a single wing offense without the blocking back"
We ran the Wing-T a bit in England too when I played, because it was easy to teach everyone. We didn't have cheerleaders though.
Miami has thrown a new twist into it their Wildcat this year, particularly against the Jets where they frequently sent out a personnel package with four backs, including a blocking back - Fullback Lousanka Polite.
The other three were Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams as the usual focal points and Sparano-favourite Patrick Cobbs.
On occasion Miami had an unbalanced line, two Tight Ends and four backs with no QB and no Wide Receivers against a defence with four-to-six defensive backs on the field.
With Cobbs down for the rest of the season with a knee injury, you can expect Miami to replace him with 5'11", 240lb Lex Hilliard to add even more bulk to the backfield.
I'm interested to see what counter and counter-counter moves will have been implemented when Miami and Rex Ryan run into each other again in a couple of weeks.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:18 PM on October 21
It has been mentioned in comments in a couple of other threads, most recently the Klosterman Dinosaur thread, so here are a couple of posts about the Wildcat.
Chris Brown of the NY Times Fifth Down blog : How the Wildcat works.
The same Chris Brown, for his Smart Football site, with some brief words and footage of the Wildcat.
The same Chris Brown, again, in discussion with Mike Tanier on Football Outsiders, in a Dolphins-Jets game walkthrough. (Skip past the (accurate) nonsense about the new NFL red zone channel.)
Chris Brown now owes me $5.
Not-Chris-Brown at Scouts Inc looks at the plays run in the Wild Cat (and gets it a bit wrong, as the Dolphins have three bread-and-butter runs, not two).
Scouts inc also have an article entitled "How to beat the Wildcat", which I haven't linked to because it offers no such thing.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:06 PM on October 21
That's a fantastic link, goddam.
I might have to adopt Honduras as my underdogs next year now. The World Cup should be about excitement like that.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:22 AM on October 16
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:46 PM on October 15
Who would bother to visit a "hall of fame" with only five members, anyway?
Members of the France family?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:25 PM on October 14
I can smell BLOCKBUSTER DEAL in which Brady Quinn goes to the Titans, Vince Young goes to the Raiders Tom Cable goes to jail, JaMarcus Russell goes to the UFL and JP Losman goes to the Browns.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:32 PM on October 14
I'll bet Quinn lands in Miami.
I'll bet he doesn't. I know Bill likes groceries, but we already traded for a QB this year.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:04 AM on October 14
Do the Giants actually need to have a QB on the field for this game?
Yeah, JaMarcus Russell.
Is this where someone says "zing"?
Nicely played, ampto.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:31 AM on October 09
"Actually, I was surprised [Sanchez] (cut me)," Vilma said in the Saints locker room... It was kind of dirty."
[Obvious punchline here]
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:42 PM on October 05
this makes you decide against jumping?
Clearly the woman thought; "it could worse, I could be Phil Brown."
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:25 AM on October 03
Oguchi Onyewu finally took the field in anger for Milan last night, playing the last 30 minutes as AC lost at home in the Champions League to FC Zurich.
Leonardo has been given the dreaded vote of confidence, which usually precedes the manager being hefted over the side.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:03 AM on October 01
"If you think Michael Schumacher is a cheater, I guarantee you have never been to a Formula One race"
Could you stop doing this?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:43 AM on October 01
I think we can expect Rosberg to Brawn, Rubens to Williams and possibly Kimi back to McLaren.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:35 PM on September 30
"Based on Wikipedia's page on high school football rules, the kick should've been called dead once it entered the end zone. "
Thanks dfleming. The different rules at the different levels is not something we get exposed to in the UK. The only difference I knew about was that the college ball has a stripe on it.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:22 PM on September 30
"Referee fail."
Is that in high school ball only? Because nobody told Nathan Vasher.
On posting; spooky hivemind moment with rcade
posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:21 PM on September 30
posted by owlhouse at 03:00 AM on September 29
Why did Australia get our convicts and America our religious?
Australia had first choice.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:53 PM on September 29
It was a TV Guide. He wanted to know if there was anything better he could put on the Telemanjaro.
He briefly turned over for CSI Miami, but a 600ft high David Caruso scared him into putting the game back on.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:55 AM on September 29
What a crazy, thoughtless decision by the coach. Unless the baptism anything like this.
[Youtube - NSFW : Language]
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:36 PM on September 28
No more Mr Nice Guy. England skipper Andrew Strauss toughens up, and refuses to allow a runner for his South African counterpart.
I'm with Ian Healy's comment to Ranatunga on that one.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:46 AM on September 28
The Rossoneri are sitting in the bottom half of the table after a lacklustre scoreless draw at the San Siro against lowly Bari.
And Oguchi Onyewu has yet to make the field for them, (outside of a crucial "World Football Challenge" appearance).
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:38 PM on September 27
You'll be wanting [s] and [/s] Tommy, (with [] replaced with <>).
Thusly : Redskins Racists
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:19 AM on September 27
Uhh, a guy with no stats and no name?
Image courtesy of joke-explainer.com
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:20 PM on September 26
He was born for this role.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:16 PM on September 26
Liverpool's owners were ready to take a 50m Payment-In-Kind loan earlier this year to raise capital for restructuring of their 350m debt.
The 50m PIK would have required repayment of more than 100m over five years.
I'm not sure I want to think of Rafa offering "payment in kind."
(also, rcade, why do my Pound Sterling symbols appear in preview, but then disappear on posting? Are you currencyist?)
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:52 AM on September 24
An entertaining talk about sports from Frank Deford : video.
It's a year old now, (pre-Olympics), but isn't especially time sensitive - a good listen to pass an hour in the office.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:37 AM on September 24
And unfortunately with Pat White named as the #2 QB, the guy who does actually look like he can throw the ball with some mustard on it, Chad Henne, is stuck holding a clipboard.
And this just to put White on the field twice and have him hand off both times.
The Dolphins need to work out that, (Dirk Nowitzki's girlfriend aside), you can't be half pregnant - either give White the proper number of snaps to make it worthwhile having him as the #2, or get Henne back in the role.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:52 AM on September 23
Interestingly, the football league has a rule that you're not allowed to own a team in their league if you're banned by any another sporting body.
Flavio is an owner at Queens Park Rangers...
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:54 PM on September 22
See : Zico, 1978 World Cup.
Finally found it - video of Zico's "goal" being disallowed because full time was blown between the ball hitting his head and crossing the line.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:21 PM on September 22
With the ball in mid air on it's way into the goal? Try disallowing that one when the buzzer or whatever sounds.
See : Zico, 1978 World Cup.
Clive Thomas was a brave man.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:11 AM on September 22
That's good to hear. I thought my memories of 1986 were broken, (maybe I didn't buy that Duran Duran album after all).
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:26 AM on September 22
In all honesty, the methodology seems flawed to me - why tell me the average amount of time added on instead of telling me the average amount of time added on in excess of the 4th official's suggested minimum?
^ This.
Plus all of the whining this week, from Hughes and others, seems to overlook one simple fact - the time put up by the fourth official at the end of the game is the minimum amount of time to be added.
They could put up four minutes and then play for another half an hour.
F'rinstance, Ferguson sent on a substitute during the four minutes, which requires the referee to add 30 seconds to "injury" time, even though Fergie would have put a rocket up his sub to make sure it took nowhere near that long.
Plus the ref will have added time for Bellamy running about like a twonk after his equaliser, which happened after "4" went up on the board.
Now having defended Man United I need a shower.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:20 AM on September 22
O'Brien to Jerome Barkum
eh? All four of O'Brien's touchdown passes that day went to Walker.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:33 PM on September 21
On the subject of Quarterbacks, today in HISTORY!, Dan Marino and Ken O'Brien went all Drew Brees combining for 927 yards and ten touchdowns as the Jets won 51-45 in overtime in 1986, when a wide receiver with one eye caught a touchdown with 00:00 on the clock in the fourth quarter and then another in the extra period to win the game.
I now have to wait patiently for the end of November to point out that we detroyed the Jets in the return 45-3.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:14 AM on September 21
Also, I'm sitting on this page reloading frantically and praying that Spurs win against Chelsea.
If you had broadband you could have just watched the game online for free, Boredom.
Clicky : myp2p.eu.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:47 PM on September 20
And then if you Google Taylor Swift's video...
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:20 PM on September 19
"John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman love Delonte West, and if they didn't cover it in this week's podcast, they'll talk about it next week."
They've been on a two week holiday. It's nice of Delonte to give them something to talk about when they come back.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:16 PM on September 19
I think it's clear that once Renault said they were going to throw themselves on the mercy of the FIA, the only way that could work is if the administration that was responsible for the decisions were gone. With these two gone Renault can point fingers and say "it was us, but really it was them!"
It's the defence that saved West Ham's premiership status.
As for the Ferrari data, teams have been gleefully stealing from each other for decades, yes, but this seemed to go beyond an imaginary, (and probably arbitrary), line.
My Dad did some F1 design work and openly admitted he "looked over the fence" a lot, but this seemed like McLaren climbed over the fence, broke into Ferrari's house and then put Ferrari's wife's knickers on their head.
Common sense does seem to be lacking this season.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:50 PM on September 16
Alonso knew about McLaren having Ferrari data in that delightful incident, so I'll be unsurprsied if he had at least an awareness that this was going to happen.
As an aside, I'm with Drood on thinking he's the best driver in the sport at the moment. The things he's managed to wring out of the recent recalcitrant Renault have been fantastic.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:27 PM on September 16
Also, a transcript of the team's radio chatter during the incident has been released.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:10 AM on September 16
The Eagles' Hank Baskett just got released. I'm worried about him not having anything to do with his spare time.
He can always hang out with his missus, Kendra Wilkinson. I wouldn't Google her at work though.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:00 AM on September 16
The FA's move seems to be a reaction to the arrival of more Sugar Daddy owners and clubs living out of deep benefactor pockets, rather than in any relation to the numbers of tickets they sell and other football-generated income.
Apparently even the mega-rich eventually catch on that shoveling money into a giant oven isn't sustainable, long-term.
I can't see this narrowing the gap between rich and poor, as smaller clubs won't be any closer to competing unless they can build and fill a ~50,000 seater arena. The good news is that having transfer income be one of the approved spending sources mean you might see an increased focus on finding and training young players to turn a transfer profit.
Or, y'know, just stealing them from French clubs.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:30 PM on September 15
My special thanks this week goes to Stoke City fans who greeted Chelsea at the Britannia on Saturday with a bit of transposition in a riff on football's most popular song; serenading the visiting fans with "You're not signing anymore!"
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:35 PM on September 14
Great stuff as usual, Hoser. But Methuselah already owns the Raiders.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:56 AM on September 12
I enjoyed it a lot, even though it only just outscored the women's European Cup final. Two of the better defences knocking heads, so I expected nothing less.
Shame to see Polamalu out for maybe a few weeks though - he had an interesting night, with a couple of awesome plays before starting a yellow hanky collection with some dubious tackles.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:08 AM on September 11
I was hoping this was going to be transcripts of some evidence of the accusation, rather than transcripts of the accusation, as it's already public knowledge what Renault are accused of, as the FIA has been investigating and have called Renault to a hearing on the 21st.
I suppose it's possible that Renault F1 were under a win-or-else mandate by the late stages of last season, (like Toyota allegedly are currently), because their car wasn't great, but a race later Fernando won in Japan so clearly the R28 wasn't a complete dog, which makes me believe Nelson less.
Renault have issued a law suit against Nelson in France and reported the matter to the police in the UK but I don't think we'll hear any of their side of the story until after the 21st.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:07 AM on September 11
The BBC are currently streaming video of the Women's European Nations Cup final between England and Germany live on their site, if you are from the UK, or can convince Auntie Beeb that you are.
The game just reached halftime.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:46 PM on September 10
Good point on the fair catch.
For some reason a redundant part of my brain recalls that the Orlando Thunder of the old WLAF used to onside kick down the middle all the time - even on the game's opening kick off and I think it worked more often than not.
But now I have to go bleach my retinas as I've been reminded of Orlando's lime green uniforms, (sported here by superstar Kerwin Bell who appears to be balancing his pet slug on his top lip).
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:38 AM on September 09
Is there a rule that the ball has to touch ... a receiving team player?
Only on punts. On kick-offs the ball is live as soon as it crosses ten yards.
I know you can drop kick extra points... I wonder if you can do the same for kick-offs?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:48 AM on September 09
On this day in 1965, the fantastically named Dagobert Campaneris became the first Major League Baseball player to play all nine positions in the same game.
He spent the first seven innings shuffling through the in and outfield roles, then pitched the eigth (allowing one run) and then moved to Catcher for the ninth where he was promptly crushed trying to stop Ed Kirkpatrick from stealing home, got in a bit of a fight and had to leave the game injured.
You can read a little about the event here, under the "Yanks Out; Twins Pad Lead" heading and there's brief mention of it on his Wiki page.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:59 PM on September 08
At the last world cup the US were ranked 5th. That didn't go so well.
I'm not sure there's a good way to produce rankings for a sport where teams might face each other in competitive games no more often than every four years, and usually much less than that, but I am sure that if there is a way FIFA haven't found it yet.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:52 PM on September 06
As mentioned as a possibility in yesterday's huddle, after disappointment with Ralf's brother and Luca Badoer, Ferrari have given their second car over to Giancarlo Fisichella.
FI claim they weren't financially incentivised to release Fisi from his contract five races early, but I'm sure it won't have hurt their payment terms on the ~E4,000,000 they apparently still owed Ferrari for last year's engine deal.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:33 PM on September 03
"The Socceroos are up two spots, despite only playing an international friendly against Ireland in almost three months."
I love the FIFA rankings.
" I think it'd be an awesome story to have Fisi in that Ferrari"
"They" say that FI would be willing to let him go if Ferrari forget about the outstanding money owed to them for use of the Ferrari engine last season. Apparently Ferrari aren't keen on that deal.
While on the subject of Spa however, it reminds me of one of my favourite overtaking maneuvers...
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:51 PM on September 02
A fact that says more about English cricket than Australian, I'm sure.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:51 AM on August 24
"First, you have to remember that the Australian press generally aren't the same as the red tops in the UK"
Want to trade?
I think Punter and the team did a decent job out here; if you look at the stats then it looks like Australia won the series - six batsmen above 40 for Australia compared to two for England, one of whom was Trott who only had two knocks and Hilfenhouse and Hauritz the best bowlers, by average and economy, in the series.
But you have to wonder why he didn't pick a spinner for the fifth test when England were thinking about picking two, (thankfully they didn't, as Broad would probably have made way for Monty), and to lose to an England side without Pietersen, batsmen out of form all over, (Bopara, Collingwood, Cook) and half a Flintoff takes some doing, even with our improved tail.
Is the omission of a spinner down to Ponting, or a selection board?
He seems like a decent enough chap, at any rate. A couple of good sporting gestures from him on the tour and it was nice to see an ovation for him going in and coming out at the Oval after some pantomime booing in the fourth test.
Who was the last Australian Captain to win the Ashes back twice?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:39 AM on August 24
Actually pretty large sections of the English media talks about the 5-0 often and after the "that's it!" moment on Test Match Special as the final wicket fell, one of the first points raised was that England had to make sure they didn't bin it in a whitewash like the last time.
As you say the tabloids are the real problem, so it's a shame they're so difficult to avoid.
Strauss said after the win that when England were bad they were terrible, but when they were good, they were just good enough, which is probably accurate.
How much stick can Ponting expect when he gets home?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:22 PM on August 23
Ponting said a middle order collapse would decide this one and he was right. Just not in the way he thought.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:10 PM on August 23
The Hoser's NFL Pick 2009, Week 11
I see what you did there.