The NBA is back!

Now that the NBA owners and players have finally agreed to a tentative deal to end the lockout, the agreement is expected to lead to the finalization of a new collective bargaining agreement that will allow the league to open it's doors on December 9th.  Teams would then be allowed to sign free agents and open training camp, with a 66 game regular season planned to begin on Christmas Day. 

While it's exciting that the season (most of it anyway) has been saved, it's frustrating that it took so long to get to this point.  Particularly when the deal doesn't appear to be all that different from what most people expected all along.  I've been saying for months what my opinion was on how the deal should work and even outlined a projected solution in an article several weeks ago.  From what we've heard so far regarding the details of the new agreement, those predictions don't appear to be that far off.

Keep in mind that while the committees representing each side have agreed to the deal, the rest of the owners and players still need to vote on it, while plenty of paper work still needs to be filed before the deal becomes official. Therefore some of this may be subject to change.

Things I Noticed: Week 12

The week kicks off on Thanksgiving day, with the traditional games hosted by Detroit and Dallas, followed by a night game that this year was in Baltimore.  Bye weeks are over, giving us a full slate of games again this week, so the three Thursday games help break up the week a bit.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• The Packers have to lose a game eventually, right?  Given their remaining schedule, this week looked to be the most likely chance for their streak to end, which is why I picked against them for the first time all year.  Apparently I was wrong, as the Pack continued to roll to their 11th win of the season behind another nearly flawless game from Aaron Rodgers.

• Not helping the Lions chances was the fact that their star defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh, got himself ejected from the game early in the third quarter.  After a brief scuffle on the ground following a key third down play near Detroit's goal line, Suh was clearly seen repeatedly shoving an opponent's head into the ground.  After finally managing to get to his feet, Suh then stomped on the arm of the Packers lineman.  Suh denies any intention of the incident, but replay showed it pretty clearly.  Given his reputation, the league wasn't going to take his word for it and slapped him with a two game suspension.  Since the start of last season, when Suh came into the league, he leads the league in personal foul penalties with 7.
• As Mike Pereria, the former vice president of officiating for the NFL who now works for Fox as a rules analyst, tweeted after the game, "Stomping on a guy is way over the line. He's not a dirty player, he's a filthy player."  Hard not to agree with him after seeing this latest incident.
• It took a last second FG to put away the surprisingly resilient Dolphins, but Dallas was able to win it's 4th straight game.  It's also the 4th win this season for the Cowboys that was decided by a FG in the last two minutes or overtime of a game.
• Laurent Robinson continues to shine in the absence of Miles Austin.  He collected 7 catches for 79 yards and 2 TDs this week.  One of those trips to the endzone was in the 4th quarter, giving him 4 TDs in the 4th quarter of games this season, which is tied for the best in the league.
• Miami was able to move the ball surprisingly well against the Cowboys defense, but too often had to settle for field goals.  All four of their FGs came on drives that stalled in the red zone and their only TD of the game came on a deep pass to Brandon Marshall.  Their ineffectiveness in the red zone turned out to be the deciding factor in the game.
• Thanksgiving is a family event, but this year it pitted the Harbaugh brothers against each other in the night game between the 49ers and Ravens.  It was the first time in league history that two brothers have opposed each other as head coaches in a game.  In the end, it was the older brother John that walked away with the victory and the bragging rights to be had over family dinner.
• The game was a defensive battle until the Ravens finally managed a TD pass to start the 4th quarter.  Each team had only one possession in the third quarter, with each drive ending with a score after a grueling drive.
• The Ravens defense tied a franchise record with 9 sacks in the game.

Things I Noticed: Week 11

It's the last week for bye weeks, with the Colts, Saints, Steelers and Texans getting the week off.

For the rest of the teams, here are some things I noticed this week:

• The Jets were able to find a way to contain Tim Tebow up until the Broncos last drive of the game, when Tebow led a 95 yard drive, capped off by a 20 yard scramble for the game winning TD.  Tebow was 3 of 5 passing for only 35 yards on that final drive, but racked up 57 yards on the ground on his way to the endzone, essentially taking over the game by himself.  I still can't explain it, but when the game is on the line, Tebow somehow finds a way to win.
• With Tomlinson missing the game and Greene exiting early with an injury, the Jets depleted backfield turned to Joe McKnight to carry the load.  Having already made an impact in the kick return game this year, McKnight could get a chance to shine in an expanded role if injuries keep the Jets other RBs on the shelf.
• The Browns escaped with a victory against Jacksonville when Blaine Gabbert's last second pass attempt from Cleveland's 1 yard line fell harmlessly to the ground.  The final play may have been more the benefit of a dropped pass than a defensive stand by the Browns, but they'll take the win.
• The Panthers appeared to be well on their way to crushing the Lions in the first half, but Detroit managed to completely turn it around in the second half. Cam Newton's four turnovers helped swing momentum back in their direction, but it was Matthew Stafford's 5th TD pass of the game that gave the Lions the lead for good late in the 4th quarter.
• Oddly enough, despite all those TD passes from Stafford, none of them went to Calvin Johnson, who leads the league with 11 TD catches this season.
• Tony Scheffler's TD catch wasn't nearly as impressive as the celebration dance that followed.

Things I Noticed: Week 10

A bit of an odd week, as the league takes a break from bye weeks.  The week also includes the first Thursday night game since Week 1, a trend which will continue until Week 17.  Can't recall previous seasons having regular Thursday games before Thanksgiving.

Here are some other things I noticed this week:

• Another late game collapse dropped the Chargers to below the .500 mark after their latest loss to the Raiders.  Philip Rivers didn't help his case with another 4th quarter INT.  He would get one last chance in the game's final minute, getting his team as far as mid-field in desperate need of a TD.  With no time outs left and the clock ticking, the last thing Rivers could afford (other than another turnover of course) was to take a sack.  He was sacked on back to back plays to end the game.
• Carson Palmer has a new favorite target in Denarius Moore (123 yards, 2 TDs).  The disappearance of Darrius Heyward-Bey continues to be a mystery, as he was held without a catch for the second straight week.  Despite Oakland losing Jacoby Ford to an ankle injury, DHB wasn't even targeted in the game.
• The Saints have had their issues on the road this year, but they came up big in Atlanta, where the Falcons didn't lose a game in the regular season all last year.
• Marques Colston was outstanding, catching 8 of his 9 targets.  Each of his catches went for a first down.
• Julio Jones left early with an injury and the Saints did a pretty good job of containing Roddy White. That left Harry Douglas (8 catches, 133 yards) as Matt Ryan's go to guy down the stretch.  On the Falcons last drive of regulation, Douglas caught the first three passes for a total of 66 yards to help put his team in position to tie the game and force overtime. 
• Falcons coach Mike Smith will get a lot of criticism this week for his bold decision to keep the offense on the field to attempt to convert on 4th and inches from his own 29 yard line in overtime.  The run was stuffed, turning the ball over to the Saints on downs, already in field goal range.  A few plays later, John Kasay's kick ended the game.

NBA lockout continues

David Stern gave the players an ultimatum last week - take the owner's current offer by 5 PM on Wednesday or the offer will be pulled off the table, resulting in a far less generous proposal.  Things could get ugly in that case, more so than they already have.  If you'll kindly glance at your calendar, you'll notice that this deadline has come and gone, yet the sides are still negotiating.  So that must be a good sign, right?

The two sides negotiated well past the 5 PM deadline last night and plan to pick up the talks again today.  This may make Stern's ultimatum seem like an empty threat, or could just be a sign that as long as enough progress is being made to allow negotiations to continue then there is no need to stop that momentum by pulling the offer off the table.  If the current round of negotiations fails to result in a deal agreed on by both sides, the threat of Stern's ultimatum is still at risk of becoming a reality.  In that scenario, Stern has threatened that the owners next offer would go no higher than 47% of BRI (basketball related income) for the players and include a hard cap.

The players suffer from a lack of leverage in these negotiations in that the owners are much more capable of surviving a lengthy lockout.  As players continue to miss pay checks, their urgency will increase.  On the other hand, many owners had been losing money under the last agreement, so some of them may actually be content to miss the entire season.  If the owner's were to carry out their threat of lowering their offer, it could result in the players resorting to the little amount of leverage they have left, which is the threat to decertify the union.  That could potentially move these negotiations into the courtroom, which would be a drawn out process that would almost certainly mean the cancellation of the entire season.

Things I Noticed: Week 9

With every team now having played at least 8 games, we've officially passed the halfway point of the season.  There's still a long way to go and a lot of work to do to shape the playoff picture.

Only 4 teams are off this week, with Detroit, Minnesota, Carolina and Jacksonville on a bye.

For the rest of the teams, here are some things I noticed this week:

• Tom Brady hadn't lost a regular season home game in his last 31 starts, plus the Patriots seemingly never lose two straight games, but that didn't matter to the Giants.  They came in to stun the Pats with an ending eerily similar to the crushing Super Bowl XLII loss.
• This time it was a pass interference penalty in the endzone that set up Eli Manning's game winning TD throw in the final seconds of the game.  With Patrick Chung being forced out of the game's final drive with an injury, Sergio Brown was thrown into an important situation despite seeing very little game action of late.  The penalty was questionable given that there was hardly any contact and it seemed unlikely that a catch would have been made, but Brown failed to turn his head back to look at the ball, which typically will draw a flag, regardless of whether he really "interfered" with the play.  Uncharacteristic mistakes have been killing the Patriots lately.
• On Tuesday the Patriots ended the Albert Haynesworth experiment. The troublesome DT was cut after being benched in the second half of the loss to the Giants following a play where he was severely over matched by the Giants offensive line on a Brandon Jacobs 10 yard TD run.  This led to an argument on the sidelines between Haynesworth and Patriots defensive coach Pepper Johnson.  That may have been the last straw for Haynesworth, who has struggled with injuries and performance in his short time in New England.
• Now if only we could get rid of Ochocinco and bring back Brandon Merriweather and James Sanders.  It would be as if we took a mulligan on our off-season moves.  Then we'd be in great shape.
• Both offenses looked sloppy in a scoreless first half.  The Giants clearly missed Hakeem Nicks and Ahmad Bradshaw, perhaps helping to make the Patriots defense look better than it actually performed.  The Giants defense did a good job of disguising their looks and putting pressure on Brady, which clearly rattled him.  He didn't look like himself until late in the game when he drove the Pats for what looked like the game winning score, until the defense failed to hold on in the final minute and a half.

Things I Noticed: Week 8

As we approach the mid point of the season the list of contenders isn't any clearer than it was weeks ago. Just when we think a certain team belongs among the elite they take a step back.  Aside from perhaps the defending champion Packers, each of the contenders has a major flaw.  The Packers were off this week, but for many other teams, those flaws were on display.

Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, Tampa Bay and the New York Jets were also off this week.

For the rest of the teams, here are some things I noticed this week.

• Tom Brady was 6-1 in his career against the Steelers, but Ben Roethlisberger finally got the better of him by beating Brady at his own game.  When you think of the Steelers offense, you think of a tough pounding running game used to set up deep pass plays.  This time they worked primarily out of the spread offense, picking the Patriots defense apart with short passes on underneath routes.
• You could tell early on that the Pats defense was in trouble after failing to stop TE Heath Miller from collecting 4 catches that totaled over half the field on the Steelers opening drive.  New England's defense has looked bad all year, in part because everyone always throws against them, but failing to stop the same play over and over again is a bad sign.
• Part of what has ailed the Patriots defense is the inconsistency of their personnel.  Injuries have played a big part in that, but part problem with building chemistry in their secondary has been due to some surprising roster cuts made by Belichick.  Earlier this season the team released safeties Branden Merriweather and James Sanders.  Before this last game they released veteran CB Leigh Bodden. Whether the issues are with the defensive schemes or with the talent evaluation, the blame points just as much to the coaching as it does to the players themselves.  Perhaps Belichick needs more help in both those departments than he thinks. 
• Brady finally looked himself late in the 4th quarter in leading a TD drive to make it a one possession game.  He connected with Rob Gronkowski for what looked like a TD, but the ball was ruled down at the one yard line, despite that replay seemed to show the ball had crossed the plane.  They scored two plays later, but the questionable call at the goal line cost them about two minutes off the clock, which came back to haunt them.
• After a failed on side kick attempt, the Patriots weren't able to get the ball back again until there were only 19 seconds left in the game, without any time outs remaining.  Hence the importance of that lost time on the previous drive.  Not even Brady can lead a winning drive with that little time left, especially not when he fumbles away their last chance.  The Steelers batted the loose ball out of the back of the endzone, which should have been a penalty.  Instead, it was ruled a safety.