Four Downs with Dang & Doc
by Brian Davis and Paul Hopkins
10/12/2009
This week Dang and Doc analyse Mike Vick's performance in Philadelphia after his cameo performance back in Atlanta. Elsewhere, is it time to anoint Darrelle Revis as the top corner in the league? In the NCAA Texas nearly committed footballing suicide on Saturday night, but still ended up in the National Championship; do they deserve it? And college's most prestigious individual prize is handed out on Saturday, but who do the resident duo think should win?
 Despite his performance on Sunday in Atlanta, Michael Vick will never be a starter in the NFL again.
DANG – FACT ! - Despite with the likes of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kyle Boller, Bruce Gradkowski and Brady Quinn, all currently starting in the league and Vick on a one year deal, I think time now looks past him and he's going to be, at best, a gadget quarterback for Wild Cat plays and option plays, nothing more. Those Quarterbacks above will likely be replaced through the draft or Free Agency over time and whilst Vick has had the talent in the past, I don't necessarily see him as a major upgrade on any of these guys and certainly not the kind of player any of those franchises needs right now. If the Eagles really thought he was NFL ready again, then why has he only thrown 11 passes, completing only 5 and has only run 19 times? I'm sure they would be better off than 8-4 right now had Vick still had “it” and offered more to their game than a handful of snaps each game and Andy Reid would be game planning to use him long term. I can't see the Eagles holding him back, I think it's more a talent issue, or a lack of what's there from before, and he wasn't on top of all of those issues when he did have “it”. Accuracy, always relying on his feet to get himself out of trouble, sadly, I think the dream is over for Vick as a starter.
DOC – FACT ! – Really difficult question to address for a multitude of reasons. First up is the question of whether what we saw in Atlanta on Sunday night from Vick was what he can produce consistently, or whether this was a cameo specifically designed to show the Falcons? Indeed, was this the plan all along? Have the Eagles been holding Vick back specifically to explode out in this game, which has to beg the question as to why they signed him? Were they doing community service to rehabilitate and bring him back into society, or were they signing him to add something to their offence? I can't believe they did this out of goodwill and it looks like its taken time (as we thought it would) for Vick to get back into stride. I guess it was just fate that it was Atlanta on the road where he continued it with his biggest game yet. So whilst he may come to have a big say in what the Eagles do between now and the end of the season and potentially into the playoffs, I don't ever see his role being bigger than this again. It's easy to say that he's better than a fair few starters in the league right now, and that's not even possibly in doubt. Its fact. But also fact is that he will still have the problems that beset him when he was in Atlanta – accuracy issues, tendency to overly rely on his feet and so on. That and his age, combined with (as we saw) his ability to be a gamechanger from the 'gadget' position without the risk that he will bring as a starter, means he has now found his role to prolong his NFL career.
 After another shutdown performance against Buffalo, Darrelle Revis has proven himself to be the best cornerback in the NFL.
DANG AND DOC (snap!) – FACT ! - Let's take a look at some of the top Wide Receiver's he's come up against this year so far, with their stat line at the end of the game:
Andre Johnson 4-35
Randy Moss 4-24 and 5-34 (1TD)
Marques Colston 2-33
Terrell Owens 3-13 and 3-31
Mike Sims-Walker 3-49 (1TD)
Steve Smith (CAR) 1-5
Those are one quarter stats for receivers of that quality, not a whole game! The even more remarkable fact is, he's shadowing the #1 receiver all over the field, if Randy Moss lines up at x or z, Revis lines up opposite, if he lines up in the slot, Revis covers, whereas a lot of teams will specifically keep their #1 and #2 CB's on the same side throughout the game. He's only given up; 2 Touchdowns, he has 5 picks, 16 Passes defensed and is shutting down #1 receiver's all over the country with only 39% of passes thrown his way completed. (Stats ourtesy of www.profootballfocus.com ). We have to give special mention to Charles Woodson as well, who has been lighting it up this season, not just in the secondary, but also getting in the backfield pressuring and hitting the Quarterback and is very strong against the run, he has 7 picks, 2 sacks, 5 QB pressures and 3 passes defended. It's therefore no coincidence that the Jets are ranked #1 against the pass and Green Bay ranked #3 with the 2 best performing cornerbacks in their secondary's.
 It should be TCU, not Texas facing Alabama for the National Championship.
DANG – FACT ! – Let me just say, I hate this system, the BCS is too scared that one of its “busters” may upset one of the big boys so have put Boise and TCU together, rather than have them tee off against Florida, Alabama or Texas, it sucks. It's about time College Football scrapped this way of doing it and got stuck into a playoff bracket system where we can properly anoint a National Champion, it's a conspiracy that neither of Boise and TCU gets a chance to play one of the “Big Boys”. As for who should play Alabama for that National Championship then give me TCU, we're going to learn nothing about TCU and Boise in their Bowl game. Texas has shown weaknesses the last two weeks and their place in this year's National Championship looks to be a sweetener after getting hosed in last year's voting, when Oklahoma were voted into the NCS game on a tie break. I guess they had to be seen to do the “right thing” to one of the big boys this year, despite the fact that Texas should have actually lost on Saturday, somehow managing to get an extra second put back on the game clock by a Big 12 official to then win the game against an 8-3 Nebraska team. Alabama should be rewarded by playing the undefeated TCU, not the Longhorns. The voters had the chance to overrule the big 12 officials but they bottled it.
DOC – FICTION ! – What complete nonsense! Let's break it down by the only means of comparator that we have. It would be good if we could just compare on the outcomes of a series of knockout football games to determine the best two teams in the nation, but we can't so we have to go by the rules set out. Or the system, or the whims, or the toss of the coin or whatever load of crap hides behind the BCS system. And this is the problem at the core of it all, is the playoff argument which is becoming even more irritating (if not more than that) with the utter dirge that is the Ari Fleischer led campaign to portray the BCS as the saviour of college football. Look, I think Texas would beat TCU if they played each other. I can't prove it but they would be my pick. Conversely on the other foot, people could make the same case for TCU to win and I would have no repost. All I would say is that TCU have beaten BYU and Utah at home - both ranked #16 when they played them. The Texas Longhorns beat #13 Oklahoma State on the road equally as convincingly as any win over a #16 side that TCU has, and #20 Oklahoma and #21 Nebraska on neutral turf. You can't, based on all these comparisons, make a case for TCU over Texas. Is Texas better than TCU? Are TCU better than Texas? We simply don't know and so we have to go by the rules laid out. Granted it's by these asinine rules, but everyone plays by the same rules and the Longhorns have done everything they needed to do all year and rightfully merit a place in the National Championship game on 7 January. And that's a fact.
 The Heisman trophy is presented this Saturday, who's your winner?
DANG – The Bronko Nagurski trophy winner, the first defensive finalist since 1997, 6'4” 300lb Senior NDAMUKONG SUH. Let's see a wind of change in this, stop giving it to Quarterbacks who never make it in the NFL, let's give it to somebody who could be as dominant in the NFL, as he has been in College Football this past couple of seasons, particularly this year. He's a really powerful pocket collapser an absolute beast in the backfield and took down Colt McCoy 4.5 times last weekend and lead a Cornhusker Defense that allowed a shade over 11 points per game in 2009. I don't even know why Colt McCoy is going to New York this weekend. I like him, but I like Jordan Shipley better, in fact I like Sergio Kindle at Texas more before I get to McCoy, I don't even think McCoy is the best QB in the game, let alone the best player overall and he had a far better time of it last season than he has this. Mark Ingram had an outstanding day against Florida in the SEC Championship and that could well win him this award on the back of it. He's pretty much carried Alabama all season and nobody, myself included expected Greg McElroy to have such a good game against the Gators, he really stepped up to the plate when it mattered Saturday. Toby Gerhart has deserved the praise he's been getting recently, but ultimately, being on a team not heading to a major Bowl game will count against him here and I don't see him winning it. 2007's winner Tim Tebow would have won this hands down had he lead the Gators to the NCS game, but after Bama's dismantling of them, there'll be no tears of joy for Tebow this weekend.
DOC – MARK INGRAM – Saturday confirmed for me that the frontrunner all season deserves his Heisman trophy this weekend. The Crimson Tide offence has consistently been placed on his back and he has led them to tough victory after tough victory. The Tide slapped Florida around on Saturday night, and this may have made the Gators look sub-standard but this was down to the ferociousness of Nick Saban's side. In particular, the performance of the offence and the dominance of Ingram over what is in fact, a very strong Florida defence, made me fix my mind back on him for the Heisman. I had allowed myself to begin to think that perhaps Colt McCoy had done enough to wrestle the mantle away, but his rather anaemic performance on Saturday night shattered his hopes. I don't even think he's been Texas' best player – Jordan Shipley has done everything for the Horns this year – and then some and deserves to be included in any discussion. Jimmy Clausen probably deserves a shout out for the way he performed in the ensuing debacle that was Notre Dame's season too, but this Saturday should be about Mark Ingram pushing Alabama to the National Championship game through the bruising and draining gauntlet that is the SEC. So, Ingram will win it in my view and my top four finishers would be 1)Mark Ingram 2) Toby Gerhart 3) Jordan Shipley 4) C.J. Spiller.
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