Wuss society tackles dominating junior football player

Check out this brief video clip of the talented football prodigy Demias Jimerson. A little league football rule has been instituted to prevent him from scoring more than 3 TDs in a game due to his total dominance.

To me, this is an example of the “wussification of America” (an expression coined I believe by Brother Steve’s colleague Matt Labash – who wrote a hilarious article a few years ago on this very subject). KIDS NEED TO FAIL. It is important for a child’s development to win AND to lose. I hated losing when I was a kid but losing helped teach me how to win. When I was facing a known dominant player in youth sports, I was inspired to try harder and to push myself to do more to help my team. This is how I got better.

This kind of rule will likely have the opposite effect from what is intended. Instead of the kids leaving the field with their self-esteem 100% intact (as the rule makers hope), the kids on the opposing teams will miss out on the chance to challenge themselves against the best while entering the game feeling lame because the rules had to be changed due to their anticipated suckiness.

Packers should bring in Steve Slaton

I know I’ve been calling for this now for years (actually I wanted the Pack to move up in the draft to draft the guy). But Steve Slaton has now been released from the Texans, I believe because Gary Kubiak simply hates him. (He’s been in the doghouse for a couple years.)

Anyway, all indications were that after his neck injury a few years ago, he was back to the same athletically gifted Steve Slaton he’d been before the injury. And remember how dominant he was that rookie year? I could be totally wrong about Slaton, maybe he sucks now. But it seems there is very little harm in bringing in such a versatile athlete like this for a tryout at the very least. I know we’re loaded on offense at the moment and working him in may not happen right away (and that we may need roster spots for more O-Line and D-Line depth) – but Slaton can play RB, WR, 3rd down back and return punts/kicks. He is a special player who sees the field differently than not-so-special players. (Don’t remember how good he is – watch here. The second highlight run is ridiculous.) Give him a try TT. And if he sucks at the tryout – I’ll shut up about Steve Slaton going forward.

 

 

Woodson is getting some safety time

Nice article here by Kareem Copeland on Woodson’s evolving role on defense. The article talks about how Woodson was essentially playing safety a fair amount in yesterday’s game. For a while now in fact, he has been playing both safety and CB – depending on the play calls from Dom Capers. This article has a nice breakdown of this.

One interesting thing I noticed last night watching the Steelers play the Colts was just how similar Woodson and Polamalu function out there. Both creep up at the line and then either blitz, run down a runner, fake the blitz and drop into coverage – etc. Both create nightmares for QBs as QBs worry about what they might do. I don’t think it would be a stretch to argue that part of the reason for the success of both LeBeau and Capers is their decision to use players like Woodson/Polamalu in these roaming/havoc causing roles. Just makes sense and at the very least – casts an annoying doubt in the mind of the opposing QB.

 

Grant apparently fine

Read here from Jason Wilde at espnmilwaukee.com. Seems like the hospital visit was more to just get some x-rays and make sure Grant was OK. He appears to be OK. Good news – he had a high quality game yesterday.

Grant apparently in bad shape after the game

When Grant went down during the game in the 2nd half he looked awful. He came right to the sideline and crumbled to his knees putting his head on the ground. What’s worse is that I believe he went back in after that. Anyway, here is a concerning update from reader Ron L (thanks Ron) –

"Just heard via Bill Michaels (WSSP sports radio), Ryan Grant was taken to the
 hospital after the game, trouble breathing.  Initially thought it was ribs, but
that was not the reason.  The cause is still unknown."  

Game Thoughts Packers/Bears

• A solid victory. The better team very clearly won this game. The Bears were clearly overmatched.
• Yet another game where it seemed the Pack could have blown out the opponent. In the second half when the Pack went up 27-10, we should have busted the game wide open. McCarthy had 2 consecutive series in the 3rd (or 4th – not sure) quarter when he ran the ball on both 1st and 2nd down in the red zone. Didn’t make sense at all. On the second series he was vindicated when Finley caught that TD on 3rd down.
• There were some questionable calls by the officials against both teams I thought. Still not sure what happened on the Knox run back at the end of the game.
• Cutler threw some nice passes today. His WRs and especially TEs didn’t help much by dropping several of them. Cutler threw a couple bad picks, but overall he wasn’t that bad – threw for 302 yards (5 more than Rodgers).
• Matt Forte was held to 2 yards rushing. You read that right – 9 rushes for 2 yards. That’s phenomenal run defense. Phenomenal. The stellar run defense forced Chicago to pass more than they may have wanted to.
• The fast start also may have forced the Bears to abandon the run fairly early. I’m guessing McCarthy was really pushing for a fast start in particular today because he knows that when the Bears have to play catch-up, they’re just not very good.
• Matt Forte did have 7 catches for 80 yards.
• Finley and Jennings were fantastic today. They each had a few catches that were unreal.
• Morgan Burnett is turning into a real playmaker. Yes, he whiffed on a few plays coverage-wise (and on that missed tackle of Kellen Davis when Davis scored). But he is a good player. He also had a few nasty hits in the run game. He could really become a good player in this league.
• Jarius Wynn had a nice game with 2 sacks. He is one guy taking advantage of the attention paid to Matthews.
• I thought Marshall Newhouse had a heck of a game overall filling in for Bulaga. He started out really strong and did struggle a bit later, but overall, he did a really nice job of filling in under difficult circumstances.
• Capers should call more blitzes for Jarrett Bush. The guy does make plays and he had a very big sack today.
• We do need to address the middle of our defense in the passing game. If opposing teams were smart they’d just throw over the middle all game. Bishop isn’t super quick in coverage and Hawk is bad in coverage. Both are solid against the run and at tackling generally – but passing against us over the middle will continue to be a smart strategy for opposing teams.
• Randall Cobb is a difference maker. The guy has serious stones catching the ball just moments before potentially getting blasted – but he never gets blasted because he makes some calculated move to avoid it. He knows what he’s doing back there.
• Tim Masthay was not so great today. A 38.7 average overall.
• The defense answered the call in the second half. They gave up that one TD (to Kellen Davis) after that questionable fumble recovery by Peppers. That’s it. Otherwise, they were fairly strong and obviously good at keeping Chicago out of scoring territory.

Bush makes big plays

like him or not, he makes some huge plays for the Pack.

Costly timeout by Bears

Bad call against Hester

That should have been a penalty on both Shields and Hester. I know Hester was the one “caught” but I don’t like that. Should have been offsetting.

awful play by Walden

that was so dumb. idiot.