No Luck O' the Irish For Brady, He's Just Good

Just Our Thoughts: Brady Quinn Was Over-exposed, Will Be a Solid Pro

Brady Quinn looked real good last night in his NFL debut for the Cleveland Browns. He entered the game with 9:20 on the 4th quarter clock for the first time since South Bend, and led the team down the field in a commanding fashion. He threw for 155 yards, on 13-20 passing, and connected on 2 touchdown passes of 6 yards each. His final drive began with 1:52 left on the clock and he took the Browns 92 yards for the score. His reads were quick, and right, and he was the best thing the Dawg Pound has seen behind center since Bernie Kosar was in the prime of his career. (My apologies to Ty Detmer, Spergeon Winn, and Don Strock)

Now the fact of the matter is Quinn did do his damage against the Detroit Lions 3rd and 4th string. And it is true, if you can’t play defense for the Lions, you cant play defense in the NFL. In addition to that, it is also true that the Lions were playing what looked to be a ‘prevent the prevent’ defense, almost 30 yards off the ball at times. But nevertheless, Quinn was also playing with the Browns 3rd and 4th string offensive players. And it is safe to say that, over the last few years, if you cant play offense for the Browns than you cant play offense in the NFL. It is also true that 4 of Quinn’s incompletions were intentional spikes (making him 13-16, 2 TD’s). The kid looked good, and the kid looked NFL ready, just like he told us he was.

Quinn’s performance is an example of something that is becoming common in sports today. He is an example of an athlete who was over-exposed on the collegiate ranks, and unfairly criticized. We have seen every game Quinn has ever played in college. Every game at Notre Dame is on national television. We have seen his good days, and we have seen his bad days. We watched him grow, than flourish, and then forced to live up to ridiculous hype as a senior.

We have seen Brady Quinn praised when he won, and criticized when he lost - 41-40. Did Alex Smith have to live up to that at Utah? Had the common fan heard of him until his senior year? He was the first pick overall in the draft. Did Jay Cutler have to live up to that level of scrutiny at Vanderbilt? Are there the same amount of sports fans in this country that hate Utah as much as they hate Notre Dame? How about all of those Vandy haters? People didn’t know who these guys were, and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Everyone knew Brady, and saw him loose to USC, and Ohio State, and said he wasn’t good in the big game. Brady didn't cover Dwayne Jarret, and Ted Ginn though.

I think Brady slipped on draft day the way he did because he was over exposed as a collegiate athlete. It is the same reason behind why certain foreign basketball players get drafted over American collegiate stars. It is my opinion that their will be 21 NFL teams that will wish they picked Brady Quinn in last years draft when it is all said and done. And last night’s Preseason debut is just a glimpse of what’s to come. But what do I know, I’m just a guy from the Nosebleeds.

How Does Sports Illustrated's NFL Preview 2006 Look in Review?

Sports Illustrated NFL Preview 2007...How did SI do last year in 2006??? Not so good...

Sports Illustrated. The father and all-knowing source for sports information. They have published their NFL Preview Edition. Terrific right. Awesome. I can’t wait to read it so that I can turn my television off on Sunday, and just know what will happen. Because they are Sports Illustrated, they must be right - right? Well, kinda. In the latest edition of the crap shoot that is prognosticating the NFL, King Peter and his minions will research, review, and analyze. But do they know more than you, do they know more than me. Who’s analyzing the analysts? Are they going to publish how they did last year, in the pages preceding this year’s NFL Preview? Are they going to give any money back from the newsstand price they charged last year, if their NFL Preview was, in review, inaccurate? I don’t think they will, but since Sports Illustrated won’t tell you how they did last year, or refund your money, we wanted to let you know how they did before they tempted you to buy their latest collection of guesses.

Lets start with a riddle. What do the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos have in common? You say, ‘two teams that were unable to qualify for the playoffs last season even as wildcards...’ I say, correct, but not the answer I was looking for. The Panthers and Broncos have in common the fact that they were Sports Illustrated’s preseason edition magazine pick to match up head to head in Super Bowl XLI. Hey Peyton, where they there? Carolina and Denver’s combined records were 17-15. Indy and Chicago’s, the two teams that actually played for the Super Bowl combined for a record were 25-7 in the regular season. Sports Illustrated picked the Carolina Panthers too win the Super Bowl and lay claim to Lombardi Trophy in ‘06. Indianapolis beat Chicago. Carolina finished the regular season 8-8.

Sports Illustrated correctly analyzed, after breaking down hours of film with Ron Jaworski, that the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks would qualify for the playoffs. Colts and Pats, my mother could have picked. Seattle was in the Super Bowl the year before. But still sometimes the previous loser of the Super Bowl falls apart and doesn’t make the playoffs the next year, so for the Bears, Giants, and Seahawks, We’ll give ‘em credit for those picks - sort of. There are 12 playoff teams however. They got five right in the 2006 NFL Draft Preview. 5 of 12, 41%. That is 41% accuracy rate and they did not pick either team to correctly advance to the Super Bowl. There are 32 teams, 12 get into the playoffs, 20 do not, 5 of 12. I don’t think that is so good - do you. So if they picked 7 teams to make the Playoffs, and those teams did not get in, who’d they pick you ask. I will tell you.

Besides prognosticating the Carolina Panthers (8-8) and the Denver Broncos (9-7) in the clash of mediocrity - a.k.a. - the ‘Super Bowl ‘06’, Sports Illustrated also selected the Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8), the Cincinnati Bengals (8-8), the Washington Redskins (5-11), the Atlanta Falcons (7-9), and the Jacksonville Jaguars (8-8) to make the 2006 NFL Playoffs.
The 7 teams that Sports Illustrated selected to make the playoffs in 2006 that did not make it, had a combined regular season record of 53-59, six games under .500.

The seven teams that they did not pick - the NY Jets (10-6), Baltimore Ravens (13-3), San Diego Chargers (14-2), Kansas City Chiefs (9-7), Philadelphia Eagles (9-7), Dallas Cowboys (9-7), and the New Orleans Saints (10-6) that actually made the playoffs had a combined record of 74-38. 36 games over .500. A difference of 42 games (Sports Illustrated -6, actuality +36) over .500. That is way off in my opinion.

Also, to add insult to injury Sports Illustrated’s preseason Coach of the Year in 2006 was Arizona’s own Dennis Green. The Arizona Cardinals finished 5-11, and they will have a new head coach tossing the red replay bean bag in 2007. And while Dennis Green was well aware of the fact that the ‘Bears were who they thought they were’ on a particular Monday night - it wasn’t enough to pull in that ‘Coach of the Year’ award that Sports Illustrated ‘thought he was.’

With all of this said, these are my thoughts and questions that I raise to you. How come, writers who are paid to deliver inside information, analysis, predictions, and stories are allowed to be this wrong. Peter King, and the NFL staff at Sports Illustrated had a job to do last year prior to publishing their NFL preseason magazine. They were to analyze the data, and make a prediction. They were wrong, quite wrong. If a manager of an investment portfolio were to be this wrong one year, you would not pay him to predict the stock market again next year. So why are we supposed to pay Sports Illustrated to predict the NFL again? And what about all those fans - say Redskins’ fans - who thought their team was going to be the best team since the undefeated Dolphins based on the reviews of SI and the like - tough year for them (5-11). What about Panthers fans - win the Super Bowl, how about 8-8.

Lucky for me, I am a Browns fan, I knew we’d stink, and at least SI got that right. But I want to hear from the fans. Do you ever wonder who is analyzing the analysts? Do you ever sit up in the nosebleeds watching your favorite team thinking... "I know more than that guy (insert talking head)" We are here to tell you, you probably do, and we’d rather hear analysis from you, the real News, News From the Nosebleeds. Oh and by the way, what do those talking heads say when their predictions are wrong? They say the aforementioned team ‘underachieved.’ Maybe you under achieved as an analyst, ever think of that?