Josh Freeman Benched, Asks for Trade

This blog is an unabashed supporter of Grandview High School product Josh Freeman who has been an NFL quarterback since 2009.

Josh Freeman has been benched by the Tampa Bay Bucs.  He is now requesting to be traded.  How did it come to this?

Josh's main problem has been up and down play.  He looked like a rookie in 2009.  He was good stuff in 2010.  He stepped back in 2011.  He had a significant streak of excellent play in 2012.  He has been horrible in 2013.

In reading comment and message boards on the situation, the blame has been placed variously on the Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano and on the quarterback himself.  It's been noted that he's had a bunch of coaches and offensive co-ordinators in his short career.

When Freeman was being evaluated in the course of the 2009 draft, the elite QBs eligible to draft, Freeman, Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, and Chase Daniels, none of them were considered locks.  All had problems.  Physically, Freeman was considered the best prototype of an NFL quarterback, with arm strength and size.  Questions revolved around football IQ and work habits.

This writer has always maintained that while Josh Freeman is very talented, he is not so talented that he can just go out on the field without strong preparation and practice.  Can he read defenses?  Can he work his progressions?  Does he know when to pull it down and run?  Can he inspire the other men in the huddle, showing them a calm demeanor under stress?

The best fit for Josh Freeman might just be the Oakland Raiders.  Oakland is the home of Tampa Bay's former OC, Greg Olson, and under Mr. Olson, Josh had his best years.  I'm not terribly excited at the idea of the nasty Raiders improving themselves with Josh Freeman.  However, it is clear that Josh has no chance of progressing his career in Tampa Bay.  It is time for a fresh start for Josh Freeman.  Once there, wherever there turns out to be, Josh needs to work at improving himself--his quarterback and leadership skills--and taking advantage of a fresh start.

The Last Time We Talked...

The last time we talked, the Royals were at the beginning of yet another losing season...

The spectacle of the Kansas City Chiefs going 2-14 was still a long way off.

Missouri had not yet discovered how tough it was to play football in the SEC.

Now, in September, the 2013 Major League Baseball season is drawing to a close.  The Royals have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the race for the second wild card spot.  The boys in blue, however, are assured of their first winning season in 2 decades, and have been awesomely exciting to watch.  If not for a disaster of a May, and some bad losses in August, we might really be talking playoffs.  Royals are still short on offense, but good pitching and defense means the team is rarely completely taken out of a game.  2014 has the potential to be a beautiful season, but it will require work in the off-season to keep up the level.

The Chiefs are 3-0, with a game coming up against the suddenly (Oh they are bad!) pathetic New York Giants here in Kansas City. The Giants are suddenly old, and the potential for 4-0 is very real.

It cracks me up when cynical and jaded fans are looking for what is wrong, or people accuse followers of Kansas City teams of not being realistic, of only looking at their teams and their chances with rose colored glasses.  Part of following a team is always being hopeful, and when your team is going well, enjoying the ride.  Yet, the informed fan well knows the deficits of the team.  The Royals offense lacks home run power and is too subject to disappearing.  The Chiefs offensive line is not as good at pass protection as it needs to be.  We need to find out if we finally have a real running mate for Dwayne Bowe at wide receiver.  Why in the world does Sporting Kansas City always manage to play down to the level of their competition and make a match out of what should be an easy win?  Aurelin Colin is going to get Sporting in trouble one day with his temper.

So we have the Royals much improved, the Chiefs with a great beginning, and Sporting KC driving to the playoffs and a real chance to take the MLS championship.  Oh, yeah, stuff can go wrong--one must realize at bottom there is only one champion--but to be able to, as a fan, realize that your team is not too bad, that is something.

So, yeah, a long year coming for the New York Giants...who would have imagined the New York Jets have more wins?!?

Royals Stinking Up the Place!

Now, I had no illusions that anything was a sure thing about this baseball team.  If the pitching held up, if the hitters hit, if we played good ball...blah blah maybe we sneak up on someone.

Well, first, the injury bug bit the team.  Then the Royals just came out and played badly.  Now we are up to losing 11 in a row and people are starting to really, really criticize the team, the manager, the GM, the owner and the dude who cooks hot dogs...

I would say just calm down, except for this:  the longer this goes on, the harder it all gets.  You will need a winning streak of 8 or 9 just to get to .500.  Confidence has floated out the window and will be hard to retrieve.  People are really mad about the marketing theme.  It is not good.

We can still see .500 ball--81 wins 81 losses--but wins must start soon or even this modest dream may go by the wayside.  In the meantime, this city's fan bases' attitude towards all the losing by its NFL and MLB franchises is building.

Just Wow!

What an amazing past couple of weeks! It has just been amazing on the sports scene.

--First Daytona 500 postponed by rain. After racing started, some spectacular crashes.

--Incredible KU-MU game at Allen Field House.

--Double OT win by UVM in the AmEast semis, after horrible, terrible loss to Binghamton. (Binghamton's only win all year.)

--New Orleans Saints "defensive bounty" scandal

--Spring training started for baseball

--Grandview advanced to state playoffs, but did lose in the second game.

More to come, including UVM playing in their 5th AmEast championship, Big 12 and NCAA tourneys, baseball spring continues, and more.

I know it is part of bread and circuses, and counts for little in the big picture, but it is a little bit of fun dropped into the midst of our confusing, annoying and unpredictable world.

Hoops Action

It took about a half of basketball to get back into the swing of things; if the weather holds up, I expect to attend several games in the next 10 days.

High School Hoops Wind Down

Last year, the weather really messed up the high school basketball schedule and compressed it into the last few weeks of February. This year, the schedule is normal, with maybe a game a week for most teams. Since I am the South Kansas City Observer, we always concentrate on the schools on the south Missouri side. So here are the remaining games for Ruskin, Grandview, and Center.

For Ruskin:

Today, 2/7 at North KC

2/10: Truman

2/14: at Central in St. Joe

2/17: Lee's Summit West

For Grandview:

Today, 2/7: Kearny

2/10: Platte County

2/14: at Oak Park

2/15: Park Hill

2/17: at Liberty

For Center:

today, 2/7 at Clinton

2/10: Smith Cotton

2/17: O'Hare

Take in a game--it is fun!

Update: All three teams won tonight--Center and Grandview are having very nice years with Center having lost just 5 games and Grandview on a 9 game win streak. Ruskin is playing .500 ball this year--a bit inconsistent...

Another Super Super Bowl

We are going to get spoiled. We've had some pretty good Super Bowls lately, since 2008's first Giants-Patriots match. Even games whose final scores were not that close had wonderful dramatic moments and twists. Of course, as a Giants fan, I could not be more pleased.

Defense proved itself to be important in this game, as well as execution. Ill timed drops and penalties affected both teams. There are several plays you can play "if only..." games with and wonder if the outcome would have been different.

Next, the draft, and then no more football--that's OK, I am ready for hoops, baseball and the rest!

High School Hoops Are Back!

Took in my first high school basketball this season during my travels--watching my alma mater win two (boys and girls) from a nearby rival. Every season when I start watching basketball closely again I remember what a love I have developed for this simple game of putting a ball through a hoop. The love affair is especially renewed by seeing a game live, even at the HS level. To see the strategy, the physicality, the style of the game up close is to remember.

More hoops photos will follow, and it will be fun right to the end.

P.S. My alma mater's boys team had not lost a game as of Friday.

Football Notes

Two days from now we will know who will be in the Super Bowl as the NFL Championship games are completed Sunday night. Our New York Giants will take on the San Francisco 49'ers and the Baltimore Ravens will take on the New England Patriots. The Giants win over the Packers was not a big surprise, but I was pleased. Our KC Chiefs gave the blueprint and the Giants took it. Packers helped by definitely being out of sorts on offense. When you get to this point in the season, you have to bring your A game for the whole game.

I am hoping the underrated Ravens beat New England because if the Giants make it to the Super Bowl, I am afraid the Pats will thump them.

These both should be good games, although probably not as good as the 49'ers-Saints game, which was a classic.

Wildcard Weekend: More Tebow Magic

So the Wildcard round is over. Houston, New Orleans and New York took care of business with wins that ended up with some one sided scores. It was certainly interesting to watch the best units of these teams rise up and just be better then the opposition. New Orleans offense in the second half. The Giants defense all game.

Then there is Tebow. Tim Tebow was already showing signs of this being different. He and his wind up had completed passes all day. The Broncos built a lead. Pittsburgh, being a good team, even when down many men, came back with two TDs in the last 10 minutes or so to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Which lasted exactly one play. Tebow throws a 20 yard pass Thomas runs 60 more and Denver wins 29-23. Amazing. The Broncos' reward? Tom Brady and the Patriots in Foxboro.

Your Josh Freeman Update

Tough year for Freeman and company this past season.

This was not a good year for Josh Freeman and the Tampa Bay Bucs. They started 3-1 but finished the season with 10 straight losses, looking really bad in the process. Basically, I would check the score, and sigh. The last game the Atlanta Falcons blew them out so badly, it was 42-0 in the second quarter.

Josh had 22 interceptions and 5 lost fumbles during 2011. Not all, of course were his fault, but that is a huge increase from 2010 where he threw just 6 INTs and lost 3 fumbles. TDs were down from 25 to 16. The relatively useless QB rating tumbled 20 points from 2010 to 2011.

I would suspect that the firing of the coach is related to the step back that Josh and this entire team took this year. This team folded, in addition to playing badly. The way it folded is something you have to lay at the feet of the coach. I keep comparing the Bucs to the Chiefs. The Chiefs never folded. They always kept playing, especially the defense. Tampa Bay folded--lost their focus and professionalism. While players are very responsible for that, much of that comes from the coach.

Josh is very talented, but prone to take his talent for granted, thinking that talent alone will get it done. If he is smart, he will take this off season to spend a lot of time thinking about how he wants his career to go. He might want to look at the best QBs in the league for models: Brady, Breese, Rodgers, even Rothlesburger. Look at these guys for clues as to what works and what doesn't work to help become a professional QB that is a step above the average--a guy a team can build on towards a championship.

So Behind...

...I will never die. Seriously.

Let's start with the NFL. The playoffs are going on as we type, with the Wildcard games going on right now. Houston got us started by beating the Bengals, the Lions are playing the Saints in the kind of game that will be determined by a big defensive play...

Football's hot stove league is already started, with speculation about who will draft who. Coaches and GMs are being fired and hired. Probably the biggest stunner was the firing of the Polians, Bill and Chris from their executive positions. Mind you, this is after one losing season--it will be interesting to see how Colts owner Robert Irsay fills this position, which will be essential to get right as they have that number 1 draft choice and tough choices about personnel and coaches. The Colts are not the only ones with firings and hirings. The Rams, Chiefs, Bucs, Jags and Dolphins are in the process of looking for coaches. Chicago, and St. Louis are also looking for GMs.

After 40 years of watching football I have come to a few conclusions about how to have a winning team. While having a good quarterback is very important, he does not have to be a HOFer level guy. Someone who is consistent, disciplined and makes few mistakes is good enough. A good team has all the bits to a greater or lesser degree: line play that is strong enough that they can push the opponent around much of the time, smart players that don't make many mistakes, depth of team where guys are good enough to step up in the face of injuries, team speed (can't coach it), coaches that complement each other. When you see a team like the Chiefs that have some good bits, but are missing important parts, or don't play the same from week to week, you know you are not looking at the Super Bowl champion.

As to the current crop of playoff teams, the Giants, who really sucked during parts of the season, are playing much better. Your solid teams are the Packers and Saints and they will be hard to upset. Both can be had by playing sturdy defense, keeping the ball on offense and not getting behind on the scoreboard. Can any of the NFC playoff teams do that--Giants, San Francisco, Atlanta or Detroit? In the AFC, it has been a surprise how many are making the Steelers-Broncos game their upset special. Many think the Broncs will beat the Steelers. It really rests on the Bronco defense, to stifle the undermanned and injured Steeler offense. If Tebow and company can run and move against the Pittsburgh defense, then the donkeys have a chance. If the Denver defense has to play the whole game, eventually they will wear out, and Pittsburgh will win. Waiting in the wings: the Patriots who have quietly, but efficiently been winning with offense. Cinncinati has already bowed out, but a nice year for the Bengals. It will be tough for Houston to move on with their number 3 QB at the helm.

So an interesting playoff and an interesting off season--what more can a fan want?

Excuse Me--What?

The Kansas City Royals reacquired Yuni Betancourt from the Milwaukee Brewers, who declined to take his option from his old Royals contract this winter. He is signed to a one year deal and is visioned to be an infield back up and another right handed bat off the bench.

Excuse me--what?

Tom Coughlin Will Need to Go

The Giants lost again in a most dispirited (and dispiriting) way to the Washington Redskins on Sunday, and I have come to an unpleasant but necessary conclusion: Tom Coughlin has to go. Somehow, he has lost this team, and when the team comes out in games against opponents it should beat and lays an egg, it is something that the coach has a big hand in. Todd Haley lost two games with this Chiefs team that should have been won, and he's gone now. I can't imagine the Maras are having much more patience with Coughlin at this point.
It has been a great ride, but it is time for a change with the New York Giants.

O Romeo Romeo...and Kyle too

I don't think anyone in this town was expecting our Chiefs to beat the Green Bay Packers last Sunday. I personally was praying that we would not be blown out with some awful score like 49-7. Before the game started, I noted that the key to staying in the game, with any chance to succeed, the offense had to stay on the field. Dreadful quick three-and-outs would kill the defense and ruin any possibility of winning.
Well, my plan was executed to perfection. The offense started with a 6 minute plus drive--with a critical conversion of a third-and-eight right out of the box--and worked to keep Aaron Rodgers and the Packer offense in a place safe for Chiefs fans, mainly cooling their heels on the bench. Couple that with an outstanding game from the defense, continued stellar kicking from Ryan Succup, and a less than terrific performance by that Packer offense and the Chiefs managed to pull off the upset of the season.
As to what it means for the future: for this season, it keeps playoff hopes, however small, alive, which is more fun than being out of the running. It gives us an idea of what we have with Romeo Crennel and Kyle Orton--not solving those problems, but giving us something new to look at. The next two games, against Oakland here and Denver there, will be quite revealing.
The end of the season will be very interesting.

Chiefs Fire Haley: Did The Wrong Man Take The Fall?

I figured Todd Haley was toast at the end of the season. He had lost his team and his relationship with GM Scott Pioli is apparently quite frosty so it was just a matter of time. However, it came down around 1015 this morning that he was "relieved of his duties" as head coach. I think the 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was the last straw. I was trying to remember the last time a professional football coach got such a penalty. I could not. It is different from a technical foul in basketball--the 15 yards really hurt.

However, you have to question how this team was put together, how little depth there is, and why Tyler Palko, who washed out of both the CFL and the UFL was considered to be a NFL level quarterback. You have to wonder why we are $30 million under the salary cap with so many needs to fill. All that you lay at the door step of GM Pioli. And many are calling for an account from Pioli on how he put this team together. Some argue that the wrong man was fired.

I don't think Haley is a horrible coach. He needs to mature--he has a lot of rough edges and he has a rep of being hard to work with--but if he can mature, he might just be a fine coach someday. Marv Levy sucked the first time around--ironically with the Chiefs if you recall. Then he went on to lead the Buffalo Bills to the Superbowl several times. I would not be surprised if Haley lands on his feet.

Now, let's see what direction it goes for a new head coach. The rumor mill keeps grinding out the name Josh McDaniels, another branch of the Patriot tree. Will they take the best coach available, perhaps Jeff Fischer, or a guy whose resume is less filled with what he has done and more filled with who he knows?

This fan wants an experienced football guy coaching and a GM who is willing to spend money and take chances to give this team better personnel.

Chiefs-Steelers Sunday Night

Offense.

We need one.

We have a lot of good stuff on this team, but we do not have an offense. Even with Matt Cassel in, we don't have an offense. Our lack is just highlighted by the injuries to Cassel, Charles and Moeaki. Our quarterbacks struggle to run the game, make the correct reads and execute. Some of our players have concentration problems. Bowe's lack of effort with the last pass was terrible--either he didn't see the ball's trajectory correctly, or he was afraid to get hit. Both are below standard for a professional football player.

I am glad, however, that we did not get our heads handed to us on national TV, and that the game was entertaining to the end, and the city shots looked pretty good. So, it could have been much worse.

Your Josh Freeman Update

It's been an up and down year for Josh and the Bucs. Like the Chiefs they are dealing with a much tougher schedule. Josh has made some comebacks in the fourth quarter, but he has also thrown more interceptions than all of last year already. The Bucs are losing more than winning. This year feels more like a sophomore year than last year did. Teams have "book" on Josh now.

Tampa Bay is a bit like the Chiefs now. If they have any chance, it is very small. It is more about learning and improving, not going to the Super Bowl now.

World Series Note

The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series after an extraordinary game 6 in which they came back from the dead twice to win in extras. Texas should have won that game, which was pivotal in so many ways. The game will live on as a classic, with great performances, bad performances, the whole works.

As is so often the case, the loser of a tough game 6 cannot bring it for a game 7. The Rangers jumped out to a 2 run lead in the first, but after that it was all Cardinals. David Freese (rhymes with Breese as in Super Bowl MVP Drew--that's how I remembered how to spell it!) was the MVP of the series. He's a hometown boy, with many Missouri connections.

It's about time we had an excellent world series. It must be noted that in a bit of a stunner, Tony LaRussa retired after the series--as in, the day after. I must admit I was surprised.

Chiefs Report: Very Shallow

If you were a realist, you knew that this year for the Kansas City Chiefs had the potential to be a trying and long year. With a division champ's schedule it was possible that the team could have a worse record and actually be better.

This team is not very good at all. In addition to the tough schedule, which actually got tougher with Detroit and Buffalo improving, the Chiefs were severely bitten by the injury bug. The results are just 4 wins--all over weak or struggling teams (and one lucky win)--and blow out losses. Losses where the offense was AWOL, and by dint of that, the defense got blown off the field.

The injuries revealed that the Chiefs were beautiful--OK mildly attractive--only skin deep. When Charles, Berry, etc. were lost, the subs were revealed to be inadequate. The loss of Matt Cassel has revealed that Tyler Palko is not an NFL level QB. Injuries in the secondary have revealed that players asked for more playing time are not very good.

Our lines continue to be a disaster--the offensive line is not protecting or run blocking very well--and the defensive line lacks depth and size. No one has emerged to help Tamba Hali with rushing the passer, so pressure on opposing QBs is sporadic at best.

Coaching and managing too, has taken a step back. Todd Haley made several bad judgment calls on how to manage the team, Scott Pioli has not stepped forward to add new players and the team has a reputation for cheapness. Today, Orten was released by Denver, and I opined that the Chiefs should try to sign him. Then I remembered--it would take money to sign him. Going to be a long rest of the year.