Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: The Sunday 'Stravaganza: Week 3

The Sunday 'Stravaganza: Week 3
Cold, Hard Football Facts for September 23, 2007

Wow. They went downhill faster than a drunken 400-pound tobogganist. They received the same amount of votes as the Arizona Cardinals, who, we must remind you, are still the Arizona Cardinals.

Consider that when we asked the same question on Sept. 2, the Saints were the clear favorite.

The results that day:

New Orleans, 34 percent
Chicago, 20 percent
Philadelphia, 18 percent
Dallas, 10 percent
Seattle, 6 percent.

From odds-on favorite to bottom of the barrel. That’s the NFL for you.

But the Saints certainly look to be deserving of this mass exodus of respect. Consider these numbers through two weeks:

Yards per play: 4.5 (23rd)
Yards per play allowed 7.3 (32nd)
Points: 24 (27th)
Points allowed: 72 (30th)
Net points: -48 (32nd)
Sacks: 0
Turnovers forced: 0

It’s one thing to go 0-2, but to go 0-2 and look so remarkably terrible doing it is enough to lose public favor faster than a politician hooking up with other men in an airport bathroom.

And congratulations to the Atlanta Falcons, who received no votes for NFC champion in either poll, preseason or post-Week 2. Would they have received any votes if the poll were given to the team’s staff and players? Doubt it.

FOLLOW-UP, PART 2

We also asked in this week's poll what you thought of Roger Goodell, and the results were predictably mixed.

NFL fans seem to appreciate the Gridiron Godfather's effort, but his effectiveness is definitely yet to be determined. Your answers showed his legacy is still in its infancy.

The results:

Stern but fair: 25 percent
Drunk with power: 20 percent
Stern but streaky: 17 percent
Cleaning up Tagliabue’s mess: 13 percent
Great for the game: 11 percent
Setting some bad precedents: 10 percent

The three positive responses got 47 percent, the three negative responses got 48 percent – a nice even split down the middle. But surely everyone would agree that the less we hear from the league office the rest of the way, the better.

STAT PACK

Some of our best stats of the week, plus a few strays that never made the cut:

San Francisco has only 25 rushing yards from 1st and 10 situations, easily last in the league.
Really? Carolina leads the league with 14 rushes of 10 or more yards this season.
Steven Jackson has been stuffed for loss eight times (most in the league) and also has two lost fumbles (tied for most among RBs).
Joey Harrington was sacked on only 3.7 percent of his dropbacks with Miami in 2006; it’s 20 percent this year with Atlanta.
Jamal Lewis ripped off three runs of 31 yards or longer vs. Cincinnati; in 2005 with Baltimore he didn’t have a single run longer than 25 yards.
Over the first 12 games of coach Mike McCarthy’s tenure, the Packers allowed a whopping 27 PPG. In his last six games, they’ve allowed just 11.3 PPG.
Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who's just 49 years old, is No. 10 all-time in number of games coached during a single tenure with one franchise (200).
Minnesota has completed only 33 passes over two games, but to 13 different receivers.

LIKE BELICHICK, HE'S NOT FACING THE MUSIC

This past week, ESPN.com Page 2-er Gregg Easterbrook produced one of the most ridiculous and unfounded NFL pieces of all time – suggesting, without any basis, that there would be more charges in the Bill Belichick/Patriots cheating scandal.

He concluded: “It would not surprise me in the slightest if, before the season ends, Belichick resigns, or is suspended, or is fired by Kraft, or even is permanently barred from the league. Belichick's head might be necessary to preserve the integrity of the game. Surprisingly soon, sacrificing Belichick to save professional football might seem an attractive option, even to Kraft. Remember, there is no law of nature that says the NFL must remain popular.”

ESPN.com led their site with this drivel for much of the day Tuesday, and by Wednesday the league office had more or less said that th- th- that’s all, folks!

Oops. That's what happens when people put opinions over Cold, Hard Football Facts, and further proof that we remain the single greatest source of pigskin analysis on the web. When the "world-wide leader in sports shoves fact-less, baseless drivel in your face, why waste your time?

In any case, Easterbrook then came out with a “reader feedback” column a couple days later, and we thought: great, there’ll be a retraction, and all kinds of vitriol coming from the readers. Nope. "Cameragate" was barely even mentioned. The whole thing is about space, or some garbage.

Here’s the official Cold, Hard Football Facts on Easterbrook: “It would not surprise me in the slightest if, before the season ends, Easterbrook resigns, or is suspended, or is fired by ESPN or even is permanently barred from the internet. Easterbrook's head might be necessary to preserve the integrity of the game. Surprisingly soon, sacrificing Easterbrook to save professional football writing might seem an attractive option, even to ESPN. Remember, there is no law of nature that says ESPN must remain popular.”

O.K., it's not an "official" line from us. But it does prove just how ridiculous pigskin opinions so often are. Listen, the only difference between the opinions of your average "pundit" and the opinions of your average drunk at the end of the bar is that one has a bigger forum than the other. As Easterbrook proved, a bigger forum does not guarantee greater accuracy.

Bonus link: Thanks to CHFF message-boarder Frustrated_Incorporated for this hilarious TMQ-related link.

AND MORE LINKS

Colonel Comey's fake bumper stickers

He thinks these are funny, but then, he thought Caddyshack 2 was funny

Friggin' lawyers

Finally somebody mentions the broad word choice for cameragate.

Illegal stab in the back, No. 86, offense ...

Hines Ward scamming his own business partners.

Is Pat Summerall an option?

The who would you rather do contest.

Wakka wakka wakka

It's about time Pacman is back in the news.