Score Update Week 14: TILT!!!

Well, that was a mess.

The 16 games this week yielded 859 points, an average of FIFTY-THREE POINT SIX NINE for the week.

That's a point higher than Week 7 2010.

Three weeks after that was about a 52 point per game week.

Week 12 of 2008 had 837 points in 16 games (52.31)

Have to go back to 2004 Week 13 for 798 pts in 16 games (49.88)

I have a spreadsheet which goes back to 2001.  That is, at minimum, the highest per-game average for a full NFL week schedule since before 2001.

There are many calling Sunday the greatest day in the league's history.  A new record 64-yard field goal, and more touchdowns on a Sunday than any day in the history of the league -- ninety.

Tack on Thursday's 27-20 win by Jacksonville and Monday night's 45-28 win for Mike Ditka (c'mon, you thought the Bears would lose on the night they retired Ditka's number on MNF??), and you have 104 touchdowns for the week.

This was the highest-scoring week in the history of the National Football League.

Mission accomplished, Mr. Goodell.

Congratulations.  You got the league that makes people like the football addicts of this nation squeal in orgasm.

Dirty hits and lots of points, just like you want it.

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Cliffhanger:

NE-CLE (TWO Patriot touchdowns in the last 1:01.)

Baltimore-Minnesota gets special mention, for probably being the biggest cliffhanger in the history of the league.

• 2:05 to go:  Flacco TD pass, two-point conversion, 15-12 Baltimore
• 1:27 to go:  Gerhart TD run, 19-15 Minnesota
• The ensuing kickoff run back for a touchdown, 22-19 Baltimore
• 45 seconds left:  On, if not the next play, the one after, 79 yard Matt Cassel TD pass:  26-22 Minnesota
• and the winner with 4 seconds left was a 9 yard Flacco TD pass:  Final was 29-26 Baltimore.

FIVE scores which changed the lead in the final 2:05.

SF-SEA (FG winner for the Niners at 0:26)

3 on the Cliffhanger Index.  Season total:  45/208

Within one score:

JAX-HOU
GB-ATL
MIA-PIT (Winning TD for Miami was with 2:53 to go -- FG tacked on in the final 2 minutes)

6 decided by one score.  Season total:  108/208, about 52%.

Blotter For Week 14, Part Zero: Darnell Dockett's gonna get his third punishment...

Initial Source:  Yahoo!

Only question on this one is does it get a suspension?

I'll say yes, for that it's his third offense with the league this year, and the league does not look kindly on intentionally trying to cleat a person's hand...

Going to have to retract, probably, something... Welker had a concussion during Patriots-Broncos...

There are times I have to walk back from certain things.

Wes Welker just got his second concussion within a month today.

He was cleared after he suffered one...  in the game against the Chiefs.

So he had no business on the field for that punt in the first damn place against the Patriots.

"BUT THEY CARE ABOUT PLAYER SAFETY..."

Bull-shit.

Again, we are talking about a culture of football -- "BE A MAN.  BE A WARRIOR..."

So basically, who is clearing these guys?

Doctors for their own teams -- doctors with a vested financial interest in getting star players and first-teamers back on to the field as quickly as possible, consequences be damned.

Some free advice from myself and a reader of my blog on this subject:

If we are going to "care about Player Safety", this concussion shit stops.  Any "clearance" must start coming from the LEAGUE and neutral doctors, doctors with no interest that the Denver Broncos (or any other of the 32 teams) win the next week.

Because, and I'm sorry to have to say this to a nation of football maniacs, to win in life is more important than to win next week.

OK, Brendan Shanahan, your move...

I still intend to do that misogyny article -- I've shown parts of it to some friends, and I was told by one of them that the stupidity might keep dragging it back.

That friend was correct.

Ladies and gentlemen, Brendan Shanahan has a problem.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our next Todd Bertuzzi incident.

As you might recall, Todd Bertuzzi ended the career of Steve Moore with a bulldog to the ice in 2004.

After a first-period fight, Bertuzzi targetted Moore late in a lopsided game.

This was before the league really went "Player Safety" and shots to the head.  Even at this point, Bertuzzi was banned from hockey (not just from the NHL, but the international federation as well) for 17 months.

We've got another one.

After a hard check in the first period by Pittsburgh's Brooks Orpik, this happens...

During a post-play scuffle, Shawn Thornton of the Bruins takes Orpik, jumps him, pushes him backward and forces his head into the ice.  He then pummels him with several punches, and it appears a possible knee as well to his head.

It's not even known at this point whether Thornton didn't leave the bench to do this.

Ok, Shanahan, your move.

Week 13 Score Update and Fine Blotter (Part Two on the latter)

Let's do it the other way around this time.

Start with the Cliffhanger Index: JAX-CLE ((JAX TD pass 40 seconds left), MIN-CHI (FG in overtime), ATL-BUF (FG in overtime)

So 3 this week out of the 16.  Total: 42 out of 192.  A bit down from the usual one out of four.

Within one score:  The above, plus DAL-OAK (the teams traded field goals in the last two minutes, the winning score basically started the 4th quarter), PIT-BAL (Pittsburgh scored with 1:03 left, but they lost 22-20 when the two-point conversion failed), IND-TEN (An Indianapolis touchdown with 1:56 left made the margin eight points, within one score, but not the Tuohy Cliffhanger), PHI-ARI, NE-HOU (Gostkowski's second 53 yarder of the 4th quarter was the difference, 3:12 left), DEN-KC, CIN-SD, NYG-WAS (FG put the Giants up 7 with 2:32 to go)

10 out of the 16 games finished with a margin of eight points or less.  Total for the season:  102 out of 192.  Roughly 53% of all NFL games end with a margin of one score.

The scoring itself:

Week 13 average:  45.5 -- about four points up from last year.

13 week per game average:  46.36 -- now about two-thirds of a point higher than last year.

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And now, for the "miscreants, riffraff, and losers" of the NFL week.  It's time for our Friday Fine Blotter.

How many multiple offenders this week, Mr. Goodell?

• Detroit Lions:  DeAndre Levy:  $15,750 for a headshot.
• Detroit Lions:  Glover Quin:  $7,875 for a late hit.
• Detroit Lions #3:  Kris Durham:  $7,875 for a face mask.
• Green Bay Packers:  Clay Mathews is, once again, a TWO-TIME LOSER.  Let's see if he gets his third letter of the year reduced.  This one cost him $15,750 for striking a defenseless player with his helmet.
• Green Bay Packers seem to be big losers on the week, not only on the scoreboard:  Tramon Williams got dinged $26,250 for shoving a referee.  Somebody on the officiating team needs to be downgraded, though.  Williams WAS NOT tossed from the game for something that should've been automatic in that regard.   Williams should've been suspended, not only for that incident, but he kicked another player in the Lions game -- not fined for that one.
• That game alone, with the $31,500 for the Lions, pocketed the league $105,000!!  Seriously, Roger...  You're going to continue to have that Thanksgiving game with the Packers and Lions, and you can just bet you're going to get dirty bullshit -- from both teams.
• Atlanta Falcons:  Sean Weatherspoon:  $15,750 for roughing the passer.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Chris Cook:  $26,250 for contact with the official.  Unlike the Williams incident, Cook WAS tossed.  You touch a ref, that's the thumb.  Baseball, that's an automatic SUSPENSION (on top of the thumb if he hadn't given it already).
• Minnesota Vikings:  Rhett Ellison:  $7,875 for a face mask. 
• Seattle Seahawks:  Richard Sherman:  $7,875 for unnecessary roughness.
• Tennessee Titans:  Moise Fokou:  $7,875 for unnecessary roughness.  This makes him a TWO-TIME LOSER. 

As a result:

• Atlanta Falcons:  Level 2.  $50,000 more.
• There are now no more teams without an NFL fine this year.  The Vikings were the last ones I found.

• Team Fines For Level 3: Detroit, another $31,500 for the team.  (Total for the Lions this year, $511,500.  Hey, Goodell, want to talk about docking draft picks??  How about suspending their coach???  NAH, we can't have any of that.)
• Tennessee tacks on another $7,875, becoming the third NFL team to go over $400,000 for Player Safety. 

Total for the year, at least as of known:  $3,675,050.

Heisman winner Jameis Winston: Not guilty by reason of football...

I knew it.

I damn well knew it.

So how long before we charge the victim in this case, justified or otherwise?

I'm going to have an article up, probably tonight, about how we've made rape and sexual assault part of sports, through the open misogyny of a sportscaster in my old hometown of San Francisco.

Today, they just gave Jameis Winston the Heisman.  They won't charge him.

I guess Tallahassee is too much a football town, right?

So the question now has to be what revenge is going to be exacted on the victim in this case?  At minimum, she's probably persona non grata in Jacksonville.

Could she be Stubenvilled too?

The football machine in this country had better hope they've got evidence that this is all a falsehood -- the whole damn thing.

Week 13 Fine Blotter Part One: Tomlin Trouble

• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Mike Tomlin, fined $100,000 for that stunt.  Draft picks are probably going to be pulled.

I want one question on this:  If they're going draft picks on this, then why the Hell is Mike Tomlin allowed any football activities, for, AT MINIMUM, the rest of the season?

Draft picks is the next step UP from suspensions.  I get the seriousness of it -- I get the knowledge the league knows that Tomlin is a fucking liar on this.

Mike Tomlin should be fired for this, by the league.  We're talking, probably, the equivalent of a show-cause at this point (a period in which the NCAA can impose a de facto ban by forcing any school who wishes to hire someone to show cause as to why).

I have no problem with draft picks, as long as Tomlin is banned for the balance of the season (and if they want to tack on a meeting before which he can be reinstated -- and toss his ass from the Rules Committee too...).

The more I look at this, the more I think of that idiot from the Arena Football League playoffs a couple years back.

I mean, think about it this way:  Seattle vs. New England in the Super Bowl.  What stops either coach from basically paying that $100K and a draft pick or two to "accidentally" ensure their team wins?

This is a joke, and needs to stop yesterday.