MAWSE!!!

Adam Schefter reports via twitter:

Trade is done: Randy Moss to Minnesota for a third-round pick. Details on ESPN's Sportscenter at 9 a.m.

If you know me personally or have been following this blog for a long time you know that I have always been a big time fan of Randy Moss. Hell as a player I got to see first hand what he could do to a defense and how he made you prepare to play against him. Trust me, that wasn't fun at all.

But ever since his first game in Minnesota defenses have tried to find ways to shut him down and yet he still finds ways to put up numbers. Simply put he is the most physically gifted and impressive wide receiver that I have ever seen. I know because of his attitude that he isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't think you can name a person who can or has done the things he has on the football field. And I know the fact that he doesn't block all the time irritates folks but look at it this way, when Moss is on the field most teams are loath to play with 8 men in the box for fear he will..well.. Moss them. So in a round about sort of way he's blocking one guy just by being on the field.

Seriously.

But like all wide receivers Moss needs a quarterback. And not just any kind of quarterback either. He needs a guy with a strong arm AND who has some gunslinger in them. Think back to his best days in Minnesota and his first year in New England (we're going to skip that whole Raiders debacle). He had Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, a young Daunte Culpepper, and a Tom Brady who wanted to put up big numbers. Those guys would see Moss running into double coverage and still throw it up to him because they knew he would still go and make a play on the ball. Its only when Moss has quarterbacks who get nervous about getting picked off that his numbers drop off a little. That's what eventually happened with Culpepper and its also what happened with Brady since that magical 2007 season.

Now Moss gets to go to a Vikings team with Brett Favre that is starving for a play maker in the passing game. And one thing about Favre, he's not only a gunslinger but he will also feed certain guys the ball. If he stays healthy I would bet you there won't be another game this season where he catches fewer than three balls and that's probably a conservative estimate. Favre is going to find him, especially on deep balls.

Then you have to remember that Sidney Rice will be back in a few weeks. If he is truly healthy then that tandem of he and Moss is going to be hell on defenses. And that's before you get to the tight end Visante Shiancoe, the slot guy in Percy Harvin and of course that monster in the backfield, Adrian Peterson. Hell think about this for a few minutes, if Rice does comeback playing like he did last year will there have ever been an offense that was more talented at the skill positions?

If you can think of one please leave it in the comments. But make sure its not an answer that will make me clown you.

There are still some variables at play here. How long will it take Moss to learn the playbook and get a rapport with Favre? Can Favre stay healthy? What about the secondary on defense? But let me tell you, if I was a betting man Id bet big that the Vikings will represent the NFC in the Superbowl this year.

Oh and by the way, the Vikings play the Jets this weekend. What do you want to bet that Revis Island is still closed for repairs? LOL

And one more thing...

o/

MOSSED!!!

Heh...

I can't really laugh too hard because I can remember several plays that looked just like that one being run against us when I played with the Bucs and we were still in the old NFC Central.

I will say this, if you don't have Moss as at least the 2nd best wide reciever of all time, slap yourself.

Hard!

History Lessons

There are two quick items I want to highlight that I have heard the last two days. The first thing is now that Randy Moss had a bad game yesterday and an opposing defensive back for the Panthers called him out for "shutting it down", all of a sudden I hear the "I play when I want to play" quote thrown around again. I didn't see the game, I don't know if he "shut it down", I saw a few highlights when he dropped a couple of balls but that was about it. But aside from whether he did or didn't shut it down yesterday, its worth revisting what he actually said in 2001.

He stirred up even more controversy in November of that year, when, asked by Sid Hartman for the Minneapolis Star Tribune (November 23, 2001) if he felt motivated on the field by Cris Carter, he replied: "I play when I want to play. Do I play up to my top performance, my ability every time? Maybe not. . . . When I make my mind up, I am going out there to tear somebody's head off. When I go out there and play football, man it's not anybody telling me to play or how I should play."

Now his quote was taken out of context almost immediately as if he just turned to Sid Hartman and said "I ONLY play when I want to play", when instead it was a response to Hartman trying to imply that all of Moss's motivation came from Cris Carter. This was a very irritatinng situation for Moss because it was Carter himself who had been pushing this line of thinking, as if all of Moss' success was due to Carter's mentoring. Also left out of the quote by mainstream media types looking to bash Moss was that Carter himself was quoted by Hartman right before Moss' quote as saying there wasn't a receiver in the league who went 100% on every play. Unsurprisingly though nobody hit Carter for his quote.

Again this isn't a commentary on whether Moss shut it down yesterday or not, but its just pointing out the context of a quote that you are likely to hear all week since people are trying to ressurrect the "Bad Randy" story. I will point out though that until last week, the "Bad Randy" was leading the league in receiving yards and second in the league in TD receptions with 9.

The second item on the agenda is this new line that the Bucs shouldn't have fired Jon Gruden because he would never ever ever have this bad of a season. Well the people saying that evidently have very short memories. I, however don't. I remember the 2006 season when the Bucs went 4-12 with a helluva lot more talent than they have this season. First they jumped out to 0-3 with Chris Simms at the helm and then after he was injured and we had to go with the rookie, Bruce Gradkowski, they finished off beating the likes of Cleveland, Cincinatti, Washington, and the Philly in their next 11 games. As a matter of fact Gruden made some of the same mistakes that year that you are seeing this year on offense in that instead of featuring the running game with his young quarterbacks, he chunked the ball around the field and put our defense in very precarious positions. That we won 4 games was a testament to Monte Kiffin, thats for damn sure.

Now just like with the Moss quote, this isn't an argument that goes beyond the point I am making. That being that Jon Gruden also had a shitty season as Buccaneers coach. That doesn't excuse what we are seeing every week from Coach Morris and his staff. And that isn't to say that they Glazer's should have hired Coach Morris in the first place. I am not taking a position on that. What I am saying is that its not like Gruden was some hall of fame coach that never had any stumbles. He did, and it was just a short 3 years ago when he too had a season to forget. People should remember that when they try to elevate him as some kind of savior who should never have been fired in the first place.

That is all.

Two Thoughts On the Patriots/Jets Game

First let me talk about the Patriots' defense. A lot of people are rightly concerned about their defense after seeing the Buffalo Bills run up and down the field on them Monday night. I have to say I share their concern. Now unfortunately some kind of way my DVR went crazy on me so I don't have the advantage of having seen the game twice, but watching it live there were some obvious problems with what the Pats were trying to do. The biggest problem I see is that they are trying to have their defensive line play in their 4-3 just like they did in their 3-4, the interior linemen at least. That means both defensive tackles are two gapping instead of playing a one gap defense.

Now I am about to get in the weeds a little here but I will try to be clear about what I am trying to say. In a 3-4 defense part of the reason why the two defensive ends and nose tackle can two gap and get away with it is spacing. In general on early downs they are never more than a gap away from the each other presnap so after the snap even if they get blocked then they are still usually only a gap and a half away from the next guy. This makes it easier for the two middle linebackers to cover their backs. But when you have both defensive tackles trying to two gap in a 4-3 you pretty much start out with them being a gap and a half away from each other. Not only that but they also only have one middle linebacker now to cover for them. The reason the Bills were able to gash them on the run was because their linebackers had no clue which gaps would be open nor where their defensive tackles were going to fit. For that reason at times there were gaps that simply wet unfilled and the Bills running backs took advantage.

The most curious thing about this development to me was that I figured after the Patriots traded Richard Seymour that they would actually go back to playing a base 3-4. This was prior to the game of course and before Jerod Mayo got hurt but my thing is they now have one less top notch defensive lineman but they still are stocked at linebacker, why not go back to what you have been doing so well for years now? Not only that but with the Bills basically advertising all preseason that they would be in no huddle a lot this year it made more sense to me to have more linebackers in the game who would be in the kind of shape that it would take to go against a no huddle offense instead of having more defensive linemen.

Bill Belicheck obviously didn't see it that way as they stuck with their 4-3 for the first game. But I have to wonder if they might revert back now against a division opponent who has a top notch running game after seeing the results from Monday. I mean honestly, in my opinion, they only have two ways of fixing their run defense. Either they coach the defensive tackles to play in one gap even if they play heavy into the guards or go back to the 3-4 defense. I think going back to what gave them 3 Superbowl rings is probably the best way to go but again that's just my personal opinion.


The second thing I want to talk about is the Jets' blitzing defense against the Patriots passing offense. Now although Tom Brady put up big numbers on Monday, I was troubled by something that I noticed. And it wasn't him favoring his knee which Ron Jaworski seems to be obsessed with. No the thing that I noticed was something I also noticed at the tail end of the Patriots' Superbowl run and especially in the Superbowl. Tom Brady has lost some of his nerve.

What do I mean by that? Well if you go back and look at the early part of 2007, the year Brady shattered the NFL record with 50 passing touchdowns, he attacked defenses down the field with a vengence in every single game. Most of the time those throws went to Randy Moss and it did not matter if he was double covered or even in a few cases triple covered, Brady was going to give him a chance to make a play on the ball. The outcome was generally good because if there is one guy I would ever want in the NFL making a play on the ball in the air its Moss. However right before the playoffs started and during the playoffs culminating in the Superbowl loss, Brady seemed to revert back to textbook quarterback play where he started allowing the defense to dictate where he threw the ball.

Because what he is doing now is truly what coaches coach quarterbacks to do, not many commentators are going to end up saying anything about it. But in the process he is turning one of the most dynamic players in the game in Moss into not much more than a possession receiver. If I am a defensive coordinator I now know that if I show even a semblance of double coverage on Moss that Brad is going away from him. And that gives all the advantage in the world to secondary guys for the other team.

The Jets however are an agressive, nasty, blitzing team and that means they will be showing a lot of single high safety. I am sure the will still double Moss on occasion but they will do it with a whole lot of camoflauge. Ironically because of this the Jets may well find themselves on the wrong side of an asskicking. See the Bills had a pretty good scheme against the Patriots on Monday whereby no matter what they were doing they still made it look as if they had Moss doubled. So Brady just threw the ball underneath and didn't really take any shots down the field. But if the Jets have a gameplan similar to what they did against the Texans the are going to give Brady the green light to go up top early and often. And if they do all you are going to hear is "INCOMING!!!"

Now I know most commentators will focus on the way the blitzes will affect Brady and the offensive line but generally the teams that actually bother Brady are those who can rush with just a four man line. When teams bring blitzes he can usually identify which receiver will have a one on one match up or if he will be able to push it down field. So all I am saying is pay attention to the times the Jets blitz this week and how much Brady makes the play with a big play downfield to Moss. As an alternative he may go downtown to Joey Galloway too who will definitely end up with the better match up of cornerbacks usually when teams blitz and he still has the wheels to get open on the deep balls.

Is Moss The Best Ever?

Check out this quote from New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady:

“He’s the best receiver, probably, ever to play the game. It’s easy to have great chemistry with Randy. You just have to throw it where he’s running because he’s usually open.”

Now a lot of people will dismiss it as just one teammate preening over another but I think Tom Brady is just being real here. I have long been a fan of Randy Moss's play on the field no matter what antics he engages in off of them. (note that he hasn't done near as much negative stuff off the field as many average fans would think)I remember watching him playing for Marshall in his senior year of college thinking "this guy is gonna be ridiculous!". And since he has been in the league he has. Playing against him and seeing what he can do live and in person only served to make me even more impressed with his play making ability.

I have friends and family of mine that bring up all kinds of so called knocks on Moss to try to dispel the notion that he is one of the greatest if not the greatest WR ever to play the game. One of the most ridiculous things I hear is that he won't block. Let me tell you something, fullbacks are hired to block. Wide Recievers are hired to move the chains and catch touchdowns. And very few, if any, that have played the game do it better than Randy Moss.

Its not just that the guy has lamborghini wheels, its not just that he can jump out of the gym, its not just that he has mitts for hands, its not just that he has supreme confidence in his abilities. Its the combination of all of those and then some.

This is a guy who thinks, no knows, that he is open even when facing double coverage. Of course here in Tampa we pretty much revolutionized the way a lot of teams play Cover 2. "Tampa 2" is now in the lexicon of playing defensive football and the premise is that we keep everything underneath and then rally to the ball to limit any yards after contact. But the thing of it was that Randy didn't care what it was we were trying to do. He was still bound and determine to beat the defense deep. And in has now become his famous tell, he would throw his hand up when he was going deep and felt he was open.

The sad part is more the half the time he was.

Now I realize that saying someone is the best player at his position has been and always will be a subjective thing. I don't imagine that I will convince those who believe that Jerry Rice is the greatest WR ever that Moss has over taken him. But I am just saying that honestly in my opinion I think if he hasn't already, he will over the rest of his career, barring injury.

I said to some friends of mine (though I can't prove it other than to have them attest to it) on draft day a few years back when Moss was traded from Oakland to the Patriots that he would break every record known to man. Remember that at that time his stock was way down and people were questioning if he was even a good receiver anymore let alone a great one. But I knew that once he got back into a stable situation and with an above average quarterback in Tom Brady, that he would thrive. And boy did he. Now I have made this prediction privately but I will say it publicly here too, I think Moss has a chance to break his single season TD record this year. After being in the system for 3 years and having Brady back at the helm, along with having an experinced and speedy threat opposite him with Joey Galloway, I think the opportunities will be there for him. I won't guarantee it, Im just saying don't be surprised if he tops 20 TDs again this year.

By the way, I really think its a two man race for G.O.A.T. I really don't see anyone else on Rice and Moss's level. And YES that includes and maybe especially T.O. whom I will speak on later.


Now for your viewing pleasure.