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By Phillip Phillips
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Football like life is a matter of inches; this cliché has been used many times over the years as we all know by now. However, I offer up a new twist on this old cliché, Football like life is a matter of choices and as we saw on Sunday having too many choices brought embarrassment to some of our top teams.
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It’s really fairly simple I will quote a good friend of mine, a High School coach here in Tennessee who is making his playoff debut this week. Who said when “I won my 1st State title as OC, I had to water down my offense to make it easier to understand for everyone. I took out the Language & just made it left this & right that.” This Sunday we saw two separate teams over exhaust themselves to the point that they actually made things easier for the defense. Who you say am I calling out? I am pointing this square at the Saints & the Patriots.
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Against the Feeley guided Rams one would have thought that Tony LaRussa & Albert Pujols were coaching & playing in this game not to mention David Freese playing WR by how the ‘Aints were defending. But defense is not the focus here. Could the Saints issue be they simply have too many targets for Drew Brees? How much time does one QB need to drop back make a read and deliver a strike especially against a team that was no better than the Colts a week before? At times he had up to six seconds or more in the pocket plus scrambling time. The last I checked the Rams secondary did not sign Deion Sanders nor did they trade for Champ Bailey. I suspect one of two things here, a team still riding a high from a Monday Night win that was deserving of Sunday’s loss or two as I have stated a team with simply too many options that leaves the QB second guessing himself. Let me move to the Patriots for more an even better example.
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Oh my beloved Patriots how you let me down. Options what do we have, let’s see in order: Welker, Gronkowski, Hernandez, Branch, Faulk (who is Back), The Law-Firm (not too active on Sunday), Woodhead, Price, OchoCinco (for the all negative, I still believe they are holding him back, a route tree is the same everywhere), Ridley. I can count around 3-5 times that know Brady outright missed a wide open Welker, why? I ask the same question as I did with the Saints, how much time does Brady need to get rid of the ball? On the very last play of the game instead of getting rid of the ball shorter than desired & spiking it, which enough time remained, Brady opted to move around look to his right, directly at the defender, who swatted the ball out of his hands. Really! Tom, how do you miss wide open guys so much, quit trying to be a hero you already are, play like a veteran not a rookie.
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Look at the teams that all won on Sunday, Bills how many options do they have? Steve Johnson, Fred Jackson & some other guys. The Rams have Steven Jackson & Brandon Lloyd & a bunch of other guys. The only thing having a lot options do is keep you viable & not allow an Indy situation to happen to your franchise. However, you WILL run into a roadblock & get embarrassed & on any given Sunday suffer at the hands of the Football Gods.
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