Ed Hochuli, The Colts, Brett Favre’s “Choke” (Not Really), And Other Week Two Football Thoughts
On with it!
- How unfortunate that the great Chargers-Broncos game had to be marred by a terrible call by veteran official/guns of steel owner Ed Hochuli? We should be talking about Broncos’ coach Mike Shanahan’s decision to go for the win (awesome, for the record, and I’m sure ESPN’S TMQ is going to make mention of Shanahan’s non-chicken decision!). We should be talking about Darren Sproles and Brandon Marshall and rookie Eddie Royal’s TD and 2pt conversion hauls.
Instead, we’re talking about Ed Hochuli’s blown call, and so will I.
!) Let’s get this one out of the way now: Hochuli got it wrong. There’s no way that Cutler’s fumble wasn’t a fumble. Sure, Hochuli had a bad angle on the play; he was standing behind Cutler, and might have been his angle blocked by Cutler’s left shoulder). If that were true, though, then why bother blowing the whistle? Let the play go, and then allow the replay official to demand a review of the play.
2) That being said, why can’t the play be completely reviewed? Who is going to argue that the Chargers could not have recovered the fumble (and, of course, they actually did!)? We saw indisputable evidence that the Chargers recovered the fumble, so why can’t the play be completely reversed?
I hope the NFL looks to reverse the “inadvertent whistle” rule, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence like we had here.
3) Charger fans, please stop with the “That call screwed us out of the game!” whining! Had you guys not gone down 21-3 early in the game, you might not have been in the position to lose on a bad call by a referee. How about stopping Brandon Marshall? How about stopping Tony Scheffler? I know! How about stopping Eddie Royal ONCE?
What a strange season so far. San Diego, Jacksonville, and Minnesota are 0-2; Arizona (???), Carolina (!!!), and Buffalo are 2-0; and the Colts should be 0-2.
- Speaking of the Colts, how are they NOT 0-2? Adrian Peterson ran all over them in Sunday’s game, and yet all Minnesota could manage was five field goals? You had a chance to bury the Colts early, and all you could muster was five field goals?
Even still, it took a furious rally—a huge reception/lateral, three tries at a TD dive, a fourth quarter TD, a 2pt conversion dive, a GREAT special teams play, and a game-winner by Adam Vinatieri—to pull this one out.
(Tangent: Why is it that I’ve seen the replay of the Anthony Gonzalez flip to Reggie Wayne twenty times, but I’ve only seen the replay of the fourth-quarter, downed-at-the-one punt by the Colts’ special teams once? If that punt goes into the end zone, who knows what might have happened?
Then again, who is surprised that a non-SportsCenter-worthy play was, arguably, the key to the game?)
And has anyone seen the Colts’ running game? Yikes.
- So I guess the great Brett Favre isn’t enough to beat a Tom Brady-less Pats team, and I guess the Pats might be OK after all. That pick Favre threw looked like vintage Brett Favre, if by “vintage,” I mean 2004-2006 and 2007 NFC Championship Favre. And Matt Cassel is fitting the role of Trent Dilfer just fine, isn’t he?
Speaking of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers doesn’t look half-bad, does he? Granted, his second game came against the Detroit Lions, but still? Dare I say that Rodgers looks almost better than Favre did last year? I can’t wait for next Sunday night’s game: Cowboys at Packers. Whoa.
Other random thoughts:
- I guess Philly really is that good, even though they lost to the Cowboys tonight.
Speaking of Philly v Dallas…who opened the floodgates to all this scoring? Philly and Dallas combined for 78 points. San Diego and Denver combined for 77 points. Green Bay scored 24 points in five minutes. Freaking San Francisco and Seattle combined for 63 points! Was this the NFL in 2008 or Tecmo Super Bowl?
I wonder what the over/under lines are going to look like for next week’s games, especially Dallas at Green Bay? Sixty points? Eighty?
- On the other end of that spectrum, I was actually kinda surprised that Pittsburgh and Cleveland managed 16 total points. I was thinking it was going to be a weird, 9-8 game or something like that :P.
- I guess Kurt Warner’s not done. Same with Jake Delhomme. Vince Young might very well be, though. Carson Palmer looks lost. Marc Bulger might want to think about early retirement.
- Speaking of the Rams…they look absolutely awful, and as much as I would love to see a team finish 0-16, I can see the Rams backing into a victory against either San Francisco or an injury-ravaged Seattle team. Kansas City might be able to do it, but they have games against Atlanta and Miami, so I don’t like their chances. Cincinnati’s offense is too talented to go winless, as is Cleveland’s offense (besides, they play each other twice), and the same can be said for Jacksonville and San Diego.
I guess no one’s going winless this year.
Fantasy football thoughts to come next time.