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5 Questions, 20 Answers
1. Mike Singletary was fired Monday; what did you see from his 49ers this year?
Neil Hornsby: I saw a team with great talent fail to win a division they should have cake-walked to. They have a very good defense, the makings of a good O-line and should have had enough of a running game to compensate for some sub-optimal QB play. I thought Singletary got what he deserved — if he hadn’t been so quick to whack Shaun Hill (after one sub-par half just as he was coming into his own) they’d already have a playoff berth. Even if he just stays with Alex Smith (or went with Troy Smith early and stuck with him), they are still in contention. His constant flip-flopping ultimately led to his demise in my opinion.
Ben Stockwell: I didn’t see a lot that’s good, probably why he’s gone. The NFC west has been absolutely horrible this year and even though the 49ers have been given second chance after second chance to stay in the hunt they just couldn’t do it, Singletary paid the price for that. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Week 15 All-PFF Team
Our Week 15 team of the week is our new Super Bowl favorite.
Michael Vick, handing off to Ray Rice, throwing to Vincent Jackson and Calvin Johnson? Unstoppable. James Harrison, Tamba Hali rushing the passer, Kyle Williams in the middle, Antoine Winfield and Brent Grimes in coverage; that’s tough to beat too.
It’s a flawless squad … unless right tackle Flozell Adams decides not to bring his “A” game and undermines the whole thing, which he surprisingly didn’t do to the Steelers in Week 15.
The MVP Debate: Early favorite back on top
Our 10 top candidates for MVP remain the same this week, but we have a new leader that looks a lot like the old leader.
Back when we started this feature, Philip Rivers was the solid No. 1 choice before team fortunes and slightly diminished his accomplishments. Now, he’s back in charge. Our 10 voters were split on the relative merits of Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and Tom Brady, but almost everyone placed Rivers 1, 2, 3 or 4.
And why not? He entered the Week 15 grading period as our top-rated passer, and the Chargers’ injuries in the receiving core have been notable. Of course, it’s not as simple as that – San Diego’s receivers have all been pretty good this year regardless of pedigree, and Rivers has taken a remarkable amount of penalties that knock his overall grade down.
But he’s also been the most consistent performer of any QB this year, notable in a season where there have been so many good ones. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Questions, 20 Answers: Dec. 20 edition
1. The favorites are established: Atlanta in the NFC, New England in the AFC. If you had to pick one team from the rest of the pack to win it all, who would it be?
Khaled Elsayed: The Saints. They can score on offense and defense. On their day they’re virtually unstoppable because eventually your offense won’t be able to keep up with theirs.
Sam Monson: The Steelers with Polamalu. With Troy Polamalu the Steelers are a different animal, and they’re built to win ugly in the cold conditions. They’ve also got plenty of players that have been there before, and had to do it traveling on the road, and I’m a big fan of institutional memory. They lost to the Jets by a whisker yesterday on the last throw of the game, and that was without Polamalu in the secondary.
The Week 14 “Had a Bad Day” Team
There were a whole lot of really good players having really bad games in Week 14.
Terrell Owens, Ray Lewis, Patrick Willis, Clay Matthews and Charles Woodson all could wind up in the Hall of Fame, but not based on their play this week.
For Owens, Lewis and Matthews especially, the games were part of a longer slump that begs the questions of motivation (in Owens’ case), age (in Lewis’ case) and injury (in Matthews’ case). We’ll be interested to see how this trio performs in Week 15.
The Week 14 All-PFF team
The stars truly shined in Week 14; with the exception of a few fluke efforts, the best performers were players either in the midst of Pro Bowl seasons or great pro careers.
If we were handing out Player of the Week honors, it’d probably go to the entire New England Patriots team that had almost unilaterally good performances against a good Bears team. Only Danny Woodhead got a grade in the red, and just barely at -1.1.
Only one Patriot actually made the All-PFF team (Logan Mankins), but if we were handing out coaching grades Bill Belichick’s name would almost certainly be on the list.
The MVP Debate: It’s already decided, but shouldn’t be
While the MVP race appears to be signed, sealed and delivered to Tom Brady, the battle for our choice is well up for grabs with three weeks to play.
Brady, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers all got first-place votes among our 10 ballot-boxers, and the difference between first place and third place is just two votes. (10 points for a first-place vote, nine for second, etc.)
And the leader is …
So, how do we come up with these grades, anyway?
Here at Pro Football Focus, we make what we do pretty clear: We watch every game, every player and every play. Says it right over the masthead at the top of your screen, and it’s the honest truth.
But it doesn’t hurt to explain exactly what that means every now and again.
So, what do we do while we’re watching every player’s play? We grade them, and track these grades, and we use these grades to really break down who is doing what on the football field.
We’ve spent hundreds of hours making sure that these grades are fair and balanced,and invite the curious or skeptical to read what we refer to as the “Hamlet of NFL player-grading primers,” our grading Q and A.
It’s good reading for those who think there’s no method to our madness; as you’ll see, there’s a whole lot of method, and not much madness other than the type of craziness it takes to actually do all this stuff … enjoy!
The Week 13 “Had a Bad Day” team
The “Had a Bad Day” team of Week 13 was just that; most coaches would be perfectly satisfied with the starting lineup of strugglers, especially on offense.
Kyle Orton, throwing to Dwayne Bowe, handing off to Ray Rice and getting his blindside protected by Matt Light and Kris Dielman? Doesn’t sound half bad.
On defense, you could get some work done with Tony Brown, Chris Long, D.J. Williams, Curtis Lofton and Cortland Finnegan. Every dog has his day, and unfortunately, every player has a dog day every once and awhile.
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