Skinnypost.com Pro Bowl Picks
Gayle Saunders & Steve O’Reilly bring you their selections for the 2011 NFL Pro-Bowl.
Charles Woodson: The Body Blow Seen Around The World
By Gayle Saunders
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Green Bay Packers Charles Woodson known for his all world defensive skills went on the offensive last night when he got into a minor fight with New Orleans Saints tight end David Thomas. After watching the replay you can easily see Woodson punch him in the stomach.
The play happened in the third quarter of Thursday’s NFL season-opening game.
What draws concern from a Saints perspective is that punching an opposing player should usually get you booted from a game, however Woodson stayed in the game and received just a 15-yard penalty. Saints head coach Sean Payton was seen motioning on the sideline to officials that Woodson should be ejected, but no dice.
Why the Road to the SuperBowl runs through Green Bay
By Rich Renza
Of manverusbook.blogspot.com
For the 2011 NFL Season, we have a deep field of contenders for the Lombardi Trophy. Pittsburgh, fresh off of a SuperBowl loss, is still an elite team. The Ravens expect to contend, as usual, and New England is out to avenge an early playoff exit. San Diego is a dark horse this year after missing the playoffs, and we can’t discount Peyton Manning and the Colts, or Rex Ryan and the Jets, who have lost the last two AFC Championship Games. In the NFC, Philly has made more noise in this abbreviated offseason than any team since the 2007 Patriots, adding Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Jason Babin, and Cullen Jenkins to their defense, and Ronnie Brown and Vince Young to their already explosive offense. With dynamic players at the skill positions, the Atlanta Falcons are part of the equation, as are the 2009 World Champion New Orleans Saints. But for all of the shifts in power over the past several weeks, whoever wants to win the SuperBowl this year will have to beat the strongest team off of winning a title in the past decade, the 2011 Green Bay Packers.
The Packers are returning with most of their key personnel left in place from February’s SuperBowl victory. While this is a fine start, one thing to remember about the 2010 Packers is that they were never a healthy, intact team. They suffered a devastating amount of injuries that kept players off the field and out of games. A partial list of players that lost game time include Aaron Rodgers, Jermichael Finley, Ryan Grant, Atari Bigby, Nick Barnett, Morgan Burnett, Mark Tauscher, Brandon Chillar, and Quinn Johnson. Even in the SuperBowl, Green Bay lost Charles Woodson and Donald Driver, and still managed to win against the veteran Pittsburgh Steelers. It is highly unlikely that this year’s team will suffer as many injuries as last year, which leads us to believe that the 2011 Packers may very well outperform the 2010 version.
While the Packers of last season were a ten-win Wild Card team, they were absolutely a dominant ten-win team. How dominant can a 10-6 team be? Let’s start by examining their losses, as this was a team that never lost by more than four points. Consider that dating back to the 2000 NFL Season, no SuperBowl winning team has even come close to having a 4-point loss as their largest margin of defeat during the regular season. Both the New Orleans Saints of 2009, and the Baltimore Ravens of 2000 were beaten by 13 points, and that’s as good as it gets! Both of Green Bay’s 4-point losses were games in which backup Matt Flynn started in place of an injured Aaron Rodgers. Of their 3-point losses, two (to Miami and Washington) came in overtime, as the team was retooling their defense to respond to the ridiculous amount of injuries. They lost once to Chicago, after giving up 18 penalties, an uncharacteristic amount for the season (they averaged 5 a game), and to Atlanta, after Rodgers engineered a last-minute drive to tie the game.
Conversely, Green Bay slapped up some absolutely dominant wins in 2010. In Week 8 they shut out the New York Jets, on the road, 9-0. They followed up that performance with a 45-7 annihilation of the Dallas Cowboys that ended Wade Phillips coaching tenure. After their bye week, they made a joke of Brett Favre’s last game against the Pack, destroying the Vikings by a score of 31-3 in Minnesota, a performance that ended Brad Childress’ run as head coach. In Week 16, a must-win game for both Green Bay and for the visiting New York Giants, they outclassed the G-Men 45-17, a loss that nearly ended Tom Coughlin’s coaching career. They followed up in Week 17 by holding the Bears to 3 points, and two weeks later, destroyed a 14-win Falcons team in Atlanta by 27 on the road. Think about that, the Packers racked up no less than five dominating wins from Week 8 on, three of which directly led to the mid-season dismissal of two head coaches, and nearly derailed the career of a SuperBowl winning head coach!
While the media spotlight is shining bright on the Philadelphia Eagles and their talented newcomers, remember that Aaron Rodgers and the Pack wear championship belts for a reason. This season, the team that wants to win the Lombardi trophy will have to go through the Green Bay Packers and rip the belts away from them to win it all.
Charles Woodson in “Best Interception Ever”
Inside the Numbers – The 2009 Darrelle Revis Story!
Fans, writers, pundits and analysts look at one thing. Coaches, coordinators and game planners look at another. For the former, statistics are the end all be all. “Look as his numbers” they will say. Sometimes, not always but in some instances, numbers don’t tell the whole story as may be the case here. For 2009 Charles Woodson has won the Defensive Player of the Year. Statistically he had a better season than Darrelle Revis who finished 2nd in the voting, both ahead of Elvis Dumervil who led the NFL in Sacks and finished 3rd. Let’s take a closer look, inside the numbers to see if perhaps Revis deserved the award, regardless of the numbers. Read more
