The Ravens’ bench-clearing brawl is a good sign for new head coach John Harbaugh.
DOCFACT ! Absolutely. Football is all about aggression and desire to win. If they’re like this in May then come August and September they’re going to be ready to smash through their opponents. Things like this happen all the time, as is the way with psyched up football players, granted it became bigger than the norm, but it’s not an indication that Harbaugh can’t keep control. It’s a sign of their desire to win, and after the season they had, I’d be quietly pleased my players had this hunger at this point, and somewhat concerned if they didn’t. Course, we don’t want it to happen anymore, but I’m sure it won’t and come week one, no-one will remember this storm in a teacup.
STOCKFACT ! I’m not 100% sold on it being a good thing but it’s certainly not a bad sign. A scrap between a few players I like, it shows the edge and aggression and toughness that the players are really in for this battle and up for the ask of winning a roster spot. However a bench clearing brawl with most of the roster piling in? That smacks a little of the ill discipline that saw the Ravens to being one of the most penalised teams in the league last season. Scraps will happen all summer, but so long as we don’t see a repeat of this mass brawl, they’re fine. Trevor Pryce put it best on this scrap:
“Go ahead, wrestle each other, pull each other’s facemasks, yeah, great, wonderful, have fun. Now we gotta go play the Patriots. They won 18 straight football games. The Giants won the Super Bowl. Do we really have to prove we’re all men?” Pryce said. “If we can get all this out of the way now, scrapping and being undisciplined and 80 men jumping in a pile together, fine. So now we’ve proved I’m tough, you’re tough, hooray, we’re all tough. Are we a good football team? What’s more important, proving you’re tough or proving we’re a good football team? That’s how I look at it.”
Alex Smith will not be the starting quarterback for the 49ers in the first week of the season.
DOCFICTION ! He’s got one last chance. I know last season he was pulled and there was the dispute with Mike Nolan over his injury but behind him there isn’t anything I would be remotely confident starting in his place. Smith has struggled at times, and at other times looked like more than a capable starter in the NFL. He’s needed help for quite a while now and by and large the young team around him is in place. He has one of the best rushers in the league in Frank Gore, a good young tight end in Davis, a better offensive line and hopefully now a decent set of receivers, so its now time that he delivered. No more excuses. This is his last chance.
STOCKFICTION ! His future is tied to Mike Nolan, in spite of their reported fall out that is the simple case. Nolan’s hand was forced in an absolutely rancid top ten to take the best QB and he deemed that to be Smith. In spite of the kudos that Shaun Hill got last year he didn’t play that well that he’s ahead of Smith, he was just different to him and the fans clung to that, it always is the fan base’s prerogative to root for the backup QB. Smith will beat out Hill, he has the accuracy that Martz likes and let’s be honest here, JT O’Sullivan is a threat, people are trying to read into him following Martz from the Lions and knowing the system, but he just doesn’t have the arm. Smith will start.
Lovie Smith’s gamble on Grossman and Orton for the forthcoming season will be his downfall in Chicago.
DOCFACT ! I don’t know what Lovie is thinking of here. We’re now a couple of weeks after the draft and amazingly they never took a QB. Surely there would have mileage in trying to see if they could have got Henne (who seems made for the Bears) or even the much touted Josh Johnson, but nothing tells me they’re putting all their eggs in Rex Grossman’s basket. Improving the offensive line is fine but that still neglects the fact that whilst Grossman, like all quarterbacks need protection and time, he will always make mistakes. It’s just a simple fact of life. He is a liability. Even though that loyalty only extended to a one year deal for Rex, Lovie will pay for his loyalty come the end of the year. Unless of course, something is afoot for the season after this forthcoming one that we don’t know about…
STOCKFICTION ! I think tying a coach to players is a very bad idea. We all know these QBs suck but that doesn’t mean that Lovie Smith is a bad coach. What they’ve tried to do is return to the recipe that got them to Superbowl XLI, in the hope that the defence will recover its form and Matt Fort will rejuvenate the running game to carry a pretty terrible passing attack to a playoff run. Now where that falls apart isn’t necessarily the QBs, this combination has got them to a Superbowl before, where it falls apart is the wide receivers, which are just flat out atrocious. The problem with this formula for success is the same formula with the Ravens’ hope of returning to the Superbowl as they did in 2000, you can’t always depend on the rest of the league being so inept that you can just get to a Superbowl by not losing. This year will finally be the downfall of Grossman and Orton, but Love Smith should survive.
This year Calvin Johnson will emerge as one of the elite receivers in the league.
DOCFICTION ! No, I don’t see. Not least because he plays for the Lions where John Kitna may again be talking about a ten win season (what happened last year John?) but that offensive line is just not up to scratch. No receiver, no matter how good they are can put up the figures if their QB is under pressure. Add in that they also have Roy Williams, who they supposedly were reluctant to let go as the Lions themselves questioned whether Calvin was up to being a number one guy. And if you’re not up to being number one then you’re not elite in this league. The talent is unquestionably there with Johnson but I think this year is one too soon.
STOCK FACT ! I see it, in fact I’ve seen it already. The numbers and consistency may not be there but he showed this season even through a back injury why he will be one of the elite receivers in the NFL. He’s got the size, the speed and moves in the open field to completely dominate defenders. The numbers again may not come this year with Roy Williams on the other side and the Lions moving from a 4 wide receiver offence to a 2 tight end offence, but the performances I think certainly will be there. If numbers are all you measure performance by then you might be disappointed again, but if you watch each performance you’ll see him living up to the draft billing.
The Ravens’ bench-clearing brawl is a good sign for new head coach John Harbaugh.
DOC FACT ! Absolutely. Football is all about aggression and desire to win. If they’re like this in May then come August and September they’re going to be ready to smash through their opponents. Things like this happen all the time, as is the way with psyched up football players, granted it became bigger than the norm, but it’s not an indication that Harbaugh can’t keep control. It’s a sign of their desire to win, and after the season they had, I’d be quietly pleased my players had this hunger at this point, and somewhat concerned if they didn’t. Course, we don’t want it to happen anymore, but I’m sure it won’t and come week one, no-one will remember this storm in a teacup.
Alex Smith will not be the starting quarterback for the 49ers in the first week of the season.
DOC FICTION ! He’s got one last chance. I know last season he was pulled and there was the dispute with Mike Nolan over his injury but behind him there isn’t anything I would be remotely confident starting in his place. Smith has struggled at times, and at other times looked like more than a capable starter in the NFL. He’s needed help for quite a while now and by and large the young team around him is in place. He has one of the best rushers in the league in Frank Gore, a good young tight end in Davis, a better offensive line and hopefully now a decent set of receivers, so its now time that he delivered. No more excuses. This is his last chance.
Lovie Smith’s gamble on Grossman and Orton for the forthcoming season will be his downfall in Chicago.
DOC FACT ! I don’t know what Lovie is thinking of here. We’re now a couple of weeks after the draft and amazingly they never took a QB. Surely there would have mileage in trying to see if they could have got Henne (who seems made for the Bears) or even the much touted Josh Johnson, but nothing tells me they’re putting all their eggs in Rex Grossman’s basket. Improving the offensive line is fine but that still neglects the fact that whilst Grossman, like all quarterbacks need protection and time, he will always make mistakes. It’s just a simple fact of life. He is a liability. Even though that loyalty only extended to a one year deal for Rex, Lovie will pay for his loyalty come the end of the year. Unless of course, something is afoot for the season after this forthcoming one that we don’t know about…
This year Calvin Johnson will emerge as one of the elite receivers in the league.
DOC FICTION ! No, I don’t see. Not least because he plays for the Lions where John Kitna may again be talking about a ten win season (what happened last year John?) but that offensive line is just not up to scratch. No receiver, no matter how good they are can put up the figures if their QB is under pressure. Add in that they also have Roy Williams, who they supposedly were reluctant to let go as the Lions themselves questioned whether Calvin was up to being a number one guy. And if you’re not up to being number one then you’re not elite in this league. The talent is unquestionably there with Johnson but I think this year is one too soon.
