MMBSD: Pre-Season Thoughts

Gleaning facts from pre-season football is typically a risky if not fool-hardy adventure. You might as well as try to predict Keanu Reeves future in show business from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. However where the normal fear to tread I shall try to pick out a few general trends from my pre-season watching.

Blitzing
After hiring Gallop to take a survey of pre-season football watchers I feel even more confident in my first observation: teams are blitzing. Yes, some of you might snicker and say is that really newsworthy but I say it is. Typically in the pre-season team defenses are vanilla. Heck a few years ago teams would scheme beyond vanilla (which I think is some combination of beige and grey). This year, however, teams are blitzing. What does this augur? Well one of two things… 1) teams just assume that other teams will prepare for blitzing packages so might as well practice them now and/or 2) We're going to some exotic blitzing schemes come the regular season. The NFL is a copy cat league. After Tampa Bay won it all, the cover-2 scheme seemed to dominate. Pittsburgh's recent ascendancy would predict mad blitzes to stop not only the pass but also the run.

T.O.
I think Tom Rick's is getting the book rights to Fiasco II: The Terrell Owens Adventure in Dallas. Terrell Owens through his skill on the field and larger than life personality was able to turn his initials into a household word. However after the end of the Philly incident Owens was obviously on a thin rope. The media would predictably pounce on even a hint of controversy. I'm guessing if someone had asked would be willing to bet T.O.'s time in Dallas would end badly I'd say no dice. If someone had said how about willing to bet that things would end badly before the end of pre-season? I bet I could have gotten good odds there. Right now, I'd be getting even odds at best.

Ben Roethlisberger
I was kind of shocked that Roethlisberger did not miss any pre-season time. Roethlisberger spent the off-season recovering from his experience as a human javelin. Cranial facial surgery for multiple hours is no minor arthroscopic surgery. I watched the Pittsburgh v. Philly game and Roethlisberger just doesn't look right. I can't tell if its his release is a little slower or he's not making reads or he no longer has peripheral vision but Roethlisberger just doesn't look good. Roethlisberger has never been a leader in efficiency or play-making (don't make me use the Super Bowl trump card) and degradation of abilities does not portend well for what could be a competitive AFC North.

Quick Hits

I'm keeping my eyes on how Carson Palmer looks. Mentally Palmer still seems a little shell shocked. Andre Agassi makes his final appearance at the U.S. Open today. Agassi, a winner of each of the Grand Slams, deserves the nostalgia and recognition. The U.S. basketball faces Germany on Wednesday at 6:30 am. Set your alarm clocks or tivo. Yes, I know the MLB baseball races going on but honestly everyone seems to be limping to the finish. I'll instead be watching the Jessica Biel v. Jessica Alba cat-fight on the Ocho.