Brady Unlimited III: Wolverines in the NFL & NFL News

[crashcourse]

lot of great throws and great catches
zebras swallowed their whistles on the holding calls giving the o lineman ample flexibility to do what was needed to keep the qb's throwing.

and remember pats only scored 12 points thanks to some good d at half
they only scored 3 td's in the second half--philly won on 2 defensiive stands

[hack]

The Spurs scored not becasue they had a ton of guys who could score. They had one of the most coherent offenses in the history of the sport, and they had to at that level because they had nobody who could transcend. The point is that they HAD TO move the ball. The Warriors sometimes don't have to, so I think they are sometimes not the best example of the specific type of basketball beauty you are talking about. I don't think the distinction is whether the ball goes in and out or around the perimeter, but whether the team abandons movement for one-on-one play, which GSW can do often enough because it's an insane collection of talent built during an anomalous time for the salary cap.

The question in the NFL is why the offensive play is as good as you'll see. The NFL is great in that it doesn't lend itself to guy like Curry or LeBron or peak Shaq transcending the game in a nothing-you-can-do-about-it-way. The NFL CAN BE the ultimate balance of power between O and D because of that. It fails, though. Instead of seeking the right balance, which the NBA does mostly by turning handchecking on or off and letting evolution take care of the rest, the NFL has been forced to change the game to protect its sustainability, and hasn't figured out a way to do it without handicapping the defense. Maybe because it lurches from PR stunt/crisis to PR stunt/crisis under some iffy leadership. As sports go, it doesn't have to work particularly hard to be popular, especially in comparison with the NBA.

[Rocky Bleier]

Brian Cook of MGOBLOG:

New England didn't punt, gained 600 yards, and lost. Oh and there were multiple missed extra points. Big 12? Big 12.

[iam416]

Again, NFL scoring this year is almost the same as it was in 1985. Whatever the rule changes have been haven’t had a dramatic effect on scoring. Which makes last night’s performance all the more impressive. This notion that the N.F.L. is the B12 just isn’t supported by the facts.

Whereas you look at NBA scoring go from 95 to 110. You compare the Bulls-Heat ECF from late 90s to a high level series last year and it’s staggering. The facts are obvious.

[WingsFan]

GREAT DEFENSE!!!! I was not one of them and I pretty much just didn't watch.

You can kiss MJ's hairy nut-sack all you want for the pussifeid NBA we have now. He didn't like Mahorn and Laimbeer knocking him on his ass going down the lane.

[iam416]

Lol @ Brian - he admittedly never watches the NFL.

[iam416]

Wingsfan:

The facts certainly don’t support that narrative. At all. The Pistons played hard defense, but they also scored. Riley killed the NBA. His Knicks and Heat teams are disgraces. You may enjoy a 77-73 NBA playoff game, but I don’t. In the least.

But the idea that the NBA got pussified in reaction to the Pistons is just dead ass wrong. The Pistons were the start of a decade long slide into the depths of awful basketball.

[hack]

Right -- in one sport you remove the pass rush, spoil the O/D balance, and you get a track meet that somehow, despite no punts, results in this. It IS odd that you see these games in the 20s and 30s when the product on the field is so obviously out of balance. Whereas it's true that the NBA is pussified, and if you are a conspiracy theory you believe the NBA helped Jordan in the 90s when they took handchecking off the table, but it's still fucking great. The fourth quarter of recent Games 7 in the Finals is a good exmaple. That one in which the Cavs and Warriors mostly played like shit but Kyrie drained a 3 is a great example of incredibly compelling basketball despite the fumbling nature of it -- that stupid behind-the-back pass that Curry threw out of bounds, etc. Or, I think it was 2010, when Sheed started for the Celts in Game 7 and both they and the Lakers had absolutely nothing left for the fourth quarter, including Kobe's jumper, so he went and floor-gamed his way to that title. Great stuff, but some people are always going to associate today's NBA with finesse. Similar but different to last night, with the incredible skill on display, but a large faction of folks feeling it just wasn't interesting to watch.

People want different things. Which is OK. IMO the best move is to strike a balance between the two sides. Should not appeal to either extreme.

[THE_WIZARD_]

All I really want...is that all of you were dead...

[hack]

Wingsfan:

The facts certainly don?t support that narrative. At all. The Pistons played hard defense, but they also scored. Riley killed the NBA. His Knicks and Heat teams are disgraces. You may enjoy a 77-73 NBA playoff game, but I don?t. In the least.

But the idea that the NBA got pussified in reaction to the Pistons is just dead ass wrong. The Pistons were the start of a decade long slide into the depths of awful basketball.

Game 2 Pacers/Pistons in '04 was fucking insane. So was Game 5, IIRC. Might have been 5 uncontested shots in those two games combined. But neither of those teams were thugging it up like the 90's Knicks/Heat stuff. They just played hard and clean. Artest took a swipe at Hamilton late in Game 7, and rather than a brawl Hamilton went and sank a few daggers.

IMO you can't say all defensive contests are awful and all offensive contests are great, nor vice-versa. Both types can be wonderful or awful.

[iam416]

I have said that. In fact, on multiple occasions. For example, this years Jags-Bills 10-3 game was awful. The Falcons-Eagles 15-10 game was compelling. I also found the SB very compelling in part because of the level of play. It’s not easy to play that well offensively. Indeed, with all the supposed “out of balance” rules, NFL scorings remains roughly comparable to scoring even in the late 70s and 80s. This isn’t a basketball on grass league. It’s still a league where teams average 21-22 ppg.

I wasn’t a huge fan early 2000s basketball, but was gads better than the late 90s nadir. The Blazers then Kings challenges to the LAL were compelling. Unfortunately, but for 2 good years from Detroit there wasn’t much in the East until LBJ went Miami.

[WingsFan]

[WingsFan]

I take the Bad Boys myself Hack

[iam416]

The Bad Boys were a splendid offensive team.

[WingsFan]

With Jordan Rules

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rules