Eli-te Manning

In the preseason Eli Manning answered a radio host’s question by saying he was an elite quarterback, which was met by scoffs from the media and opposing fans. While the Giants QB has been a Pro Bowler and Super Bowl MVP, he was not considered in the same class as other signal callers like Brady, Brees, Rodgers, or Roethlisberger, or even the best QB in his own family. Despite upsetting Brady in the Super Bowl, Eli’s aw shucks demeanor and 53 turnovers in the past two seasons while missing the playoffs did not help him get out of Peyton’s shadow.

However, since the season started, the youngest Manning has risen to the occasion. Aided by the middle Manning’s neck surgery and New York’s meager running game, Eli has captured the spotlight this season. In his best season as a pro, the Giants QB broke multiple Giants records including completions, yards, and career playoff touchdowns. His 4,933 yards would have been third all time going into this season, and when paired with 29 TD’s, would easily win MVP in other years. He even set a record for most 4^th quarter touchdowns in a season, previously held by Peyton and Johnny Unitas.

More importantly, Eli won his last two playoff games advancing to the NFC championship game, one win away from a possible Super Bowl rematch with Brady and the Patriots. With the two victories, he has improved his postseason record to 6-3, which at 67% compares quite favorably to other QBs with as many starts. If you look at the chart below, he has had more postseason success than Hall of Famers Staubach, Young, Griese, Tarkenton, Kelly, Marino, and Moon, as well as future Hall of Famers Favre and older brother Peyton. The nine QBs above him on the list have won a combined 23 of the 44 Super Bowls played, so maybe Eli’s new found stardom and renewed team success and will make it 24.

Quarterback	Wins	Losses	Percent	Hall of Fame
Bart Starr	9	1	90%	Yes
Jim Plunkett	8	2	80%
Tom Brady	15	5	75%	Will Be
Terry Bradshaw	14	5	74%	Yes
Troy Aikman	11	4	73%	Yes
Ben Roethlisberger	10	4	71%
Joe Montana	16	7	70%	Yes
Kurt Warner	9	4	69%	May Be
John Elway	14	7	67%	Yes
Eli Manning	6	3	67%
Roger Staubach	11	6	65%	Yes
Phil Simms	6	4	60%
Ken Stabler	7	5	58%
Steve Young	8	6	57%	Yes
Donovan McNabb	9	7	56%
Drew Brees	5	4	56%	May Be
Bob Griese	6	5	55%	Yes
Fran Tarkenton	6	5	55%	Yes
Brett Favre	13	11	54%	Will Be
Jim Kelly	9	8	53%	Yes
Steve McNair	5	5	50%
Danny White	5	5	50%
Mark Brunell	5	5	50%
Craig Morton	5	5	50%
Peyton Manning	9	10	47%	Will Be
Matt Hasselbeck	5	6	46%
Dan Marino	8	10	44%	Yes
Daryle Lamonica	4	5	44%
Randall Cunningham	3	6	33%
Dave Krieg	3	6	33%
Warren Moon	3	7	30%	Yes

Hoo’s Battling Duke for 1st Place?

Don’t look now, but UVa men’s basketball team is 14-1 and ranked #16 in the country. The Cavaliers are the only one loss team left in in the ACC, putting them in first place as conference play starts up. This is the highest the team has been ranked since 2000, when they were #8 in the country. In the latest Bracketology forecast, ESPN predicts Virginia will be a 5 seed in the tournament which would be the team’s best seeding since they last made the tournament as a 4 seed in 2007.

UVa is led by fifth year senior Mike Scott, who is the leading scorer and has had five double doubles so far. He has already earned three ACC player of the week awards this season, only the fifth Cavalier to do so. The team also relies on one of the best defenses in the country, which is 2^nd out of 338 in scoring at 50.5 points a game, and 20^th in opponents’ field goal %. The fans at John Paul Jones Arena have embraced the defensive mindset by ramping up the decimal level whenever the opponents’ shot clock goes below 10 seconds.

However, the team’s biggest test to date is Thursday as they travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on #6 Duke. ESPN has this matchup as the upset pick of the week. Unfortunately, the Wahoos have not beaten the Blue Devils since 2007 and have not won on Coach K court since 1995, when the members of the Hoo’s roster were still learning how to walk let alone dribble a basketball. Yikes!

Chick-Fil-A Bowl Adventures

After UVA surprisingly made the Peach Bowl (now Chick-Fil-A Bowl), Erryn and I decided to attend with some of my UVa buddies. The Atlanta hosted bowl is reserved for the second ranked ACC team, but Virginia Tech earned a BCS bid, leaving an opportunity for the Cavs to go to a top flight bowl after being predicted to finish in the basement of the division.

When we arrived in Atlanta, we were surprised to see plenty of fellow Cavs fans, but due to the proximity to Auburn, the Tiger fans showed up closer to gametime. Strangely enough, Auburn’s first football coach was a UVa alum and used our colors for their squad 100 years ago, hence tons of orange and blue in the streets of Atlanta. The highlight of the activities before the game was the parade, during 60 degree Georgia weather, and predictably tons of cows:

The game started off great with our marching band and early touchdowns and leads:

Unfortunately Auburn’s speed and our special teams errors took over the game leading to a 19 point loss. You are not going to win many games with two blocked punts, giving up an onside kick, a failed fake fg, and a 60 yard return. Despite the disappointment, I am optimistic about the young over achieving team and look forward to next year after sophomore QB Rocco’s improved play in the 2nd half of the season.

Tebow!

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, here are some interesting facts and absurd stories accompanying Tebow Mania.

• Everyone knows he’s gone 7-1, but his stats (10 passing tds, 2 ints, 517 rushing yards, 3 rushing tds) compare favorably to other hot QBs, Rodgers (8-0, 25 tds, 4 ints), Brady (6-2, 19, 5), Big Ben (7-1, 13, 5) and Brees (6-2, 20, 6).
• Tebow’s stats through three quarters: 38% completion, 4.7 yards an attempt, 5 passing tds, 301 rushing yards, 1 rushing td. In the 4^th q/OT: 61%, 8.9 yards an attempt, 6 passing tds, 216 rushing yards, 2 rushing tds.
• Tebowing (pictured above) is now an official word.
• Tebow’s pastor says they are winning because God is on their side.
• You can get Tebow Christmas cards on ebay.
• He is getting MVP consideration.
• “Tim Tebow” gets 194 million Google hits, compared to 11 million for undefeated Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, 11 million for injured Peyton Manning, 48 mil for Lebron James, and 68 mil for Tiger Woods. At least the other Golden Boy Tom Brady is almost half, at 81 million.
• Speaking of Brady, the Patriots are the next team to try to stop Tebow Time. New England has the worst ranked defense in the league, so if the Broncos can somehow contain the Patriot offense, Denver fans’ prayers could continue to be answered.
• Lastly, no one seems to have noticed that the Packers are undefeated at 13-0 while the Colts are 0-13. Hello!

Miami of Ohio Football Adventure

This past week I got the opportunity to see my only cousin play D-1 football in person. As I have mentioned before in this blog, my cousin, Brad Bednar, is the starting left tackle for the Miami of Ohio Redhawks. After two seasons at center, he was moved to left tackle for his junior year for the defending MAC champs. Before the game I was able to bother him with pictures during warm-ups and then took videos during the action against Temple in Philadelphia:

It turned out to be an entertaining game as Miami mounted a fourth quarter comeback that fell just short. Miami WR Nick Harwell set school records for receptions and yards as the RedHawks tried to thwart the Owls intense pass rush. Despite the loss, Miami still has a chance to repeat as MAC champions and I had a great time supporting my cousin.

On a side note, I believe I’ve found college fans worse than Maryland. Despite being a campus of 37k, only a couple hundred Temple students made the 30 minute subway ride to the game. Notice the crowd in this picture. That’s roughly one fan for every 100 students. Compare that to UVa’s 10k student section for 20k students. Not showing up is one thing, but how they acted is what made it worse. After Miami scored a touchdown to make the game closer, half of their band came over to the Miami family section and began to play their fight song. After the Owls sealed the game a dozen students came over and started taunting the RedHawk section as well. Some of the students even had signs saying they should be in the Big East. They were kicked out of the Big East five years ago for poor attendance and a dismal record! Maybe it’s something in the water in Philly.

Boston Sports Adventure

This past weekend, I visited Boston for the first time with my girlfriend Erryn, and happened to visit several sports related sites. The first day, we toured the campus of Boston College including the 2010 and 2008 NCAA champion hockey team’s arena as it was being prepared for a game.

Next we were able to walk on the football field, where the Eagles had just lost the night before in a rout by Florida State. Hence, they were running punishment laps.

Later in the weekend, we toured the oldest baseball park in the country, Fenway Park. While the sunny skies, helicopter fly over, and green monster were cool,

the fact that a groundskeeper has to manually change the NL scores on the field between innings and seeing the green monster seats hang over the street were the highlights.

The main event of the weekend was the Giants-Patriots game on Sunday for which we had suite tickets. Once again, the moonlit night, free food, and militia gun-firing were great,

but seeing Brady walk off his own field a loser for the first time in years was extra special.

As a side note, while it seemed like there were statues on every block for colonial historical figures, there were plenty of sports ones as well.

Glad I got to see at least one Manning take the field this season!

Pardon the Interruption, but PTI Turned 10 Years Old

On Monday, my favorite sports television show, Pardon the Interruption, or PTI, marked its 10 year anniversary. In case you do not DVR it daily, the sports debate show airs daily on ESPN featuring two former Washington Post sports columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. The show is especially significant to me since I grew up reading columns by these two while eating my breakfast cereal and interned at their studio for a summer, sitting in on tapings. While I consider myself the show’s “first” fan, I think the guest in the clip below might disagree.

UVA Finishes a Perfect Day with an Upset

For the first time in several seasons I did not purchase UVA season tickets, but chose to come to just a handful of key games. Undefeated #12 Georgia Tech and a sunny fall day seemed like the perfect time for a tailgate as well. While the Yellow Jackets came in touting an option offense that ran all over the Hoos in previous seasons, Virginia had the bye week to prepare for the gimmick. After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Cavaliers let the Rambling Wreck back in the game with a missed field goal and pick six. Then Coach London figured out what VT Coach Beamer had enjoyed for years, beating up on an Al Groh coached defense. The Hoos gave the Yellow Jackets and their former coach a taste of their own medicine by running for their highest total in seven seasons, while holding them to their lowest offensive output in 20 games. UVA was even able to run out the last six minutes of the game as students ran out onto the field:

Now that Virginia is 4-2, they are only two wins away from bowl eligibility and luckily have home games coming up against NC State and Duke. Heck, they even received three votes in the AP poll on Sunday, capping a great weekend.

NFL Teams' Best and Worst Starts Since...

There has been a lot of talk this week about how the Detroit Lions are off to their best start since 1956 and the Colts are off to their worst since 1997. This got me to thinking, how remarkable have these seasons been in comparison to other teams' starts? Is the NFL that consistent that if a team starts off really hot or cold, it is history making? I looked at the current standings and compared them to when the last time the team had that surprisingly few or high number of wins through 4-5 games (some teams have had byes already). Here is the graph with analysis afterwards:

• Detroit is having their best season in 55 years.
• Green Bay has not been 5-0 in 46 years as well.
• Indy, Denver, and Philly have not started this poorly since the late 90's.
• The other feel good stories of the season, 49ers and Raiders, are justified in their press since it has been nine seasons since they've had this good a record through five games.

While those seven teams are the extremes, the other 25 are more predictable:

• Seven teams have the same exact record at this point last year. (The Bucs, Texans, and Giants had playoff aspirations going into this year and have the same record this point last year which they just missed the playoffs. For all the excitement and hope Cam Newton has brought the Panthers, they are 1-4 just like last year.)
  
• Another seven have the same disappointment or optimism as two seasons ago. (Mediocre Dallas was also at 2-2 two years ago when they made the playoffs.)
  
• Washington and Buffalo are on top of their divisions, but both had the same great start only three years ago when they each missed the playoffs.
• Half the league's teams were just as good or just as bad at this point within the past three seasons.
  

I'm sure week 10 or other years might show differently, but this snapshot shows how remarkably consistent NFL teams are. Therefore, do not panic or join the bandwagon for your favorite team just yet, because your team is likely to be just where it was a couple years ago anyways.