A Sports Sample Platter
January 25, 2017 at 4:27 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
Sunday was the worst-case scenario for the National Football League. We were lined up for two epic showdowns, and we got two epic wipeouts. In a season that seemed to be hampered by generally poor play, a lack of last-minute heroics and the dark cloud of off-the-field social issues like domestic violence and crimes.
All of the sudden, the “invincible NFL” is very … well … ”vincible”.
Now, the league will have to spend the next 10 days in sleepless dread at the thought the Patriots, who spent the first four games of the season without their quarterback in the highest of high-profile off-field lawsuits over “Deflategate”, are now four quarters from taking the Lombardi Trophy out of the hands of Commissioner Roger Goodell and beating him over the head with it.
It’s just another awkward moment in a season where it feels like the league, its players, its teams and its overall product have been flagged for illegal procedure on every first down play.
Speaking of awkward, I am still waiting for someone to give me good reason why it took almost three whole weeks for the Colts and Ryan Grigson to part company. While other teams were quickly moving to retool or begin the rebuilding process, the Colts were trying to hold together a relationship that clearly wasn’t salvageable.
So they chose to keep the coach and dump the guy who put the roster together. But here is the problem: Chuck Pagano came to Indy to make the defense better because Andrew Luck would make the offense run without issue (just like Peyton Manning had for so many years before). But Pagano’s defenses have not gotten any better. They have no identity. You cannot watch them and say “the Colts defense will take THIS away from you.” They have a couple of good players, but in critical moments this season they failed to make a stand. Had they done that even twice, they would have won their division.
But I am glad they didn’t. Making the playoffs would have masked the deep-rooted problems the Colts have and will put them in a better draft position to fix those problems.
The girls sectional draw was held a week earlier than normal this year in an effort to give teams an extra week to do their homework on their sectional opponents.
I don’t have a big problem with that, if everyone is on board with it. For some sectionals, where teams don’t play each other in the regular season, the extra week is no doubt helpful. For the teams in Class 4A Sectional 4, this is not a problem. Five of the seven teams are members of the Northern Lakes Conference, so they play at least once each regular season. The other two are Northern Indiana Conference members Elkhart Central and Penn, whose schedules are filled with teams from Sectional 4.
In other words, they’ve met.
Warsaw got the rough draw, and will likely have to beat two of the three teams that beat them in the regular season just to get into the championship game, where it’s assumed Penn will be waiting.
It will be a hard road, but nothing worth having is ever easy.
Friday, the Warsaw boys will host NorthWood in a Northern Lakes Conference clash featuring the only two unbeaten teams in league play. It sets up very similar as last season’s sellout at The Pit in Nappanee, but with a twist.
Last year the Tigers went into Nappanee unbeaten, and this year it’s Aaron Wolfe’s Panthers who are unblemished through the fourth weekend in January. There is fish fry before the game and it’s the WHME Channel 46 Game of the Week.
It’s gonna be a big deal.
The state of Indiana will have four solid representatives in the NCAA Tournament in March. I was going to rank them in order, but I am not sure I can do that with great confidence. I can, however, tell you that Notre Dame, Purdue and Butler have proven through the schedule to-date that they have the pieces and the chemistry to make runs to the Sweet 16.
Ranking those three is really a day-to-day exercise. Butler beat Villanova and Xavier, and then had to sweat out an overtime loss to a bad DePaul team in Chicago. Purdue looks good, but there is something about their ball-handling that makes me uneasy. Notre Dame has good guard play, but in virtually every game they have an elongated stretch of the second half where they just can’t walk and chew gum. In a tournament game, how long that stretch is and how much the other team takes advantage of that will determine how far they go. For the Bulldogs, Boilers and Irish there is a lot more to like than not.
For the Indiana Hoosiers, however, well, when we get to the third week of March what team will show up for that first tournament game? More than that, will the Hoosiers figure out how to overcome the fact they will not be playing any NCAA games at the Assembly Hall. They have no signature wins away from Bloomington – at least not yet.
It’s a fun time of year, isn’t it?
Here’s hoping the Falcons do us all a favor and dump the Patriots.
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Sunday was the worst-case scenario for the National Football League. We were lined up for two epic showdowns, and we got two epic wipeouts. In a season that seemed to be hampered by generally poor play, a lack of last-minute heroics and the dark cloud of off-the-field social issues like domestic violence and crimes.
All of the sudden, the “invincible NFL” is very … well … ”vincible”.
Now, the league will have to spend the next 10 days in sleepless dread at the thought the Patriots, who spent the first four games of the season without their quarterback in the highest of high-profile off-field lawsuits over “Deflategate”, are now four quarters from taking the Lombardi Trophy out of the hands of Commissioner Roger Goodell and beating him over the head with it.
It’s just another awkward moment in a season where it feels like the league, its players, its teams and its overall product have been flagged for illegal procedure on every first down play.
Speaking of awkward, I am still waiting for someone to give me good reason why it took almost three whole weeks for the Colts and Ryan Grigson to part company. While other teams were quickly moving to retool or begin the rebuilding process, the Colts were trying to hold together a relationship that clearly wasn’t salvageable.
So they chose to keep the coach and dump the guy who put the roster together. But here is the problem: Chuck Pagano came to Indy to make the defense better because Andrew Luck would make the offense run without issue (just like Peyton Manning had for so many years before). But Pagano’s defenses have not gotten any better. They have no identity. You cannot watch them and say “the Colts defense will take THIS away from you.” They have a couple of good players, but in critical moments this season they failed to make a stand. Had they done that even twice, they would have won their division.
But I am glad they didn’t. Making the playoffs would have masked the deep-rooted problems the Colts have and will put them in a better draft position to fix those problems.
The girls sectional draw was held a week earlier than normal this year in an effort to give teams an extra week to do their homework on their sectional opponents.
I don’t have a big problem with that, if everyone is on board with it. For some sectionals, where teams don’t play each other in the regular season, the extra week is no doubt helpful. For the teams in Class 4A Sectional 4, this is not a problem. Five of the seven teams are members of the Northern Lakes Conference, so they play at least once each regular season. The other two are Northern Indiana Conference members Elkhart Central and Penn, whose schedules are filled with teams from Sectional 4.
In other words, they’ve met.
Warsaw got the rough draw, and will likely have to beat two of the three teams that beat them in the regular season just to get into the championship game, where it’s assumed Penn will be waiting.
It will be a hard road, but nothing worth having is ever easy.
Friday, the Warsaw boys will host NorthWood in a Northern Lakes Conference clash featuring the only two unbeaten teams in league play. It sets up very similar as last season’s sellout at The Pit in Nappanee, but with a twist.
Last year the Tigers went into Nappanee unbeaten, and this year it’s Aaron Wolfe’s Panthers who are unblemished through the fourth weekend in January. There is fish fry before the game and it’s the WHME Channel 46 Game of the Week.
It’s gonna be a big deal.
The state of Indiana will have four solid representatives in the NCAA Tournament in March. I was going to rank them in order, but I am not sure I can do that with great confidence. I can, however, tell you that Notre Dame, Purdue and Butler have proven through the schedule to-date that they have the pieces and the chemistry to make runs to the Sweet 16.
Ranking those three is really a day-to-day exercise. Butler beat Villanova and Xavier, and then had to sweat out an overtime loss to a bad DePaul team in Chicago. Purdue looks good, but there is something about their ball-handling that makes me uneasy. Notre Dame has good guard play, but in virtually every game they have an elongated stretch of the second half where they just can’t walk and chew gum. In a tournament game, how long that stretch is and how much the other team takes advantage of that will determine how far they go. For the Bulldogs, Boilers and Irish there is a lot more to like than not.
For the Indiana Hoosiers, however, well, when we get to the third week of March what team will show up for that first tournament game? More than that, will the Hoosiers figure out how to overcome the fact they will not be playing any NCAA games at the Assembly Hall. They have no signature wins away from Bloomington – at least not yet.
It’s a fun time of year, isn’t it?
Here’s hoping the Falcons do us all a favor and dump the Patriots.
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