This Whole Post Bothers Me

- "Coach, your daughter's five. You could've at least stopped blocking her shots." -

Cole

Current Standing: 11-4, Embarrassed in the First Round

The Sunday afternoon tilt between the New York Jets and the undefeated Indianapolis Colts was broadcast throughout much of the country on CBS. So if you're like me and tried to get escape the familial obligations with a little pigskin, then some big drunk uncle took the remote while you were getting more egg biscuits and started watching Jeff Dunham. Pain in the ass.

But I'm going to assume that you were more viligant than I, and that you saw head coach Jim Caldwell channel his inner Jim Mora and pull his starters in the third quarter against a Jets team fighting for its playoff life. The Colts, leading 15-10 at the time, allowed 19 unanswered points and lost 29-15.

Now, there's two ways to look at this. The gut reaction of the sports blogger is to criticize, so let's touch on that first: by sitting his starters, Caldwell does a disservice to the history of the NFL by not continuing to strive for perfection. And let's not forget the fans who paid in body parts for seats at Lucas Oil Stadium to see the Colts' B-squad. No wonder they were mad. If this were Philly, we'd be talking about the poor decision of the late Jim Caldwell.

Of course, the counterargument is that by resting his starters, Caldwell prevented a horrific, season-ending injury to Peyton Manning that would have resulted in more time spent filming commercials. So really, we should be thanking him for that. Plus we don't have to listen to Mercury Morris talk about the damn kids in his neighborhood again.

But that's all pretty hackneyed, and if we're going to recycle jokes, we might as well go whole hog:



Aah. Look at that sweet Zapruder-style footage.

Honestly, this whole post may have been an excuse to link to that video again. But let me leave with this: the running joke on Jim Caldwell was that no one knew that he was actually coaching (or, for that matter, awake) during Colts games.

Well, they know he's awake now.

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Miami Nice: Year Two of the Wildcat

- 1. Direct snap to running back. 2. ??? 3. Profit! -

Cole
Current Standing: 7-2, 2nd Overall

Watched the Pats-Dolphins game Sunday and was not disappointed. The Pats look solid now that Brady has his feet under him, but they have two huge challenges, playing the undefeated Colts and Saints before the end of November. But honestly, I'd rather talk about the Dolphins.

The Dolphins' offense is fun to watch and a chore to defend against, because Miami uses the Wildcat formation* on a large number of their snaps. After the formation debuted against the Patriots last September, Miami rode their new offense to an 11-5 record and their first playoff appearance since 2001. This year, despite some tough losses, Miami is fourth in the league in rushing and is a pundit favorite to surprise people in the second half of the season, taking advantage of a weak schedule in the second half.

The only problem is that the Dolphins need a passing game. After Chad Pennington was lost to injury, rookie Chad "blame it on the" Henne started taking snaps when the Wildcat was called off. And he's been respectable in his first year few starts; his 77.8 QB rating through six games is just above where Pennington's was before his injury. Analysts were excited about Henne before the season started, praising his arm and predicting success for the Dolphins' speedy receivers once they had a quarterback who could get them the ball on a deep route.**

But there is another option for coach Tony Sparano: Pat White. The former Mountaineer was selected by the Dolphins in this year's NFL draft, and as such probably could stand some more seasoning first. But when White came into the Patriots game Sunday, I paid attention. When White is in the game, the Dolphins can run their typical Wildcat option (with either White or Ronnie Brown taking the carry), or they can call more conventional passes or runs. White is familiar with this style of offense already, as it's similar to what he used to great success at West Virginia with Steve Slaton, and would have the advantage of speed over using Henne in this role.

Technically, Ted tells me, using White and Brown in the same backfield isn't really the "Wildcat" formation, it's a shotgun option. And that's fine, even if the name's not as fun. But the important thing is, replacing the aging Ricky Williams with a professional quarterback -- even one with modest throwing ability -- opens up the vertical passing game and could prevent defenses from stacking eight in the box to protect against the run. It's the type of formation that could work well for other mobile quarterbacks: Vince Young and Chris Johnson, for instance, would seem to be prime candidates for this in Tennessee. It still doesn't eliminate the problem of needing receivers who can catch, but that's another issue.

You don't care, do you. Okay, fine. Here's something shiny.



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*-For those unfamiliar to the term, it involves snapping the ball to a running back as opposed to their quarterback.
**-Of course, this implies the receivers can catch the ball. I'm looking at you, Ted Ginn, Jr. Read more...