broncos

I hate Thursday Night Football

Jeromey Balderrama

Anyone who knows me knows that I love football. I bleed Orange & Blue, and whether in person or on TV – I love watching football games.  But I loathe Thursday Night Football.

Here’s why I hate it:

  • Another Night for Football -  I give the NFL a lot of my time and money. When the Broncos play at home, I spent all day going to the game and then come home and watch Sunday Night Football.  Even though I have a Monday commitment, I still find a way to catch part of Monday Night football. Yet now the NFL is wanting me to give up another evening to watch their game.  I have busy things during the week so that my weekends can be free to watch football.  Look NFL, believe it or not, I have a life outside of your game.
  • It ruins all of the games surrounding football – Whether it’s fantasy football, pick’ems, survival football – most of these games require you to solidify your picks/lineups before the first game.  Last week the Broncos played the Browns and you bet I had that game on my mind, yet I forgot to go in and change the lineups for one of my fantasy teams and missed the pick’em.  After 9 weeks of conditioning myself to prepare for the weekend, you throw a wrench in and take away 3 days on many of these games. It’s asinine!
  • The NFL Network – The idea of the NFL Network is great, but it is the State-Run-Television of the NFL.  The quality of the broadcast & commentary isn’t up par with the major networks, and yet the NFL keeps ramming these games down our throat on these networks.  After watching the Broncos/Browns last week, watching the same 5 commercials over and over again got old pretty quickly.  On top of it all, 40% of the US doesn’t get the NFL Network.  I’ve heard rumors that the NFL may sell the games next year to another sub-par cable network like TNT. Just make the games go away, admit this idea failed miserably and go back to airing classic games.

Come on NFL, give Thursday night back to College football.

Great story on John Lynch

Jeromey Balderrama

I just wanted to pass long this great story on John Lynch, and his struggles in dealing with retirement.  Written by Rick Reilly, a fantastic sports columnist.  I remember feeling a bit betrayed when he went to the Patriots, but I am sad that he’s not playing anymore.  It sounds like Lynch’s experiences are pretty bittersweet. Whether he decides to come back and play (and I always hope he’ll end up wearing Orange & Blue again), I definitely wish the best for the Lynch family. I’m also glad to hear they’re still in Colorado.

Madden 09: A month in

Jeromey Balderrama

I’m a Madden junkie, so naturally I went out the day the game came out bought it right away.  Unfortunately with as busy as I am, I didn’t even take the shrink wrap off the game until 10 days later, then really haven’t played it consistently or extensively since I opened it.   After about a month in and playing it over a half-dozen times, I have a pretty good sense of the game.

The realism of the game is pretty impressive, and overall the performance on the X-box 360 is pretty good.  Before last Christmas, I played Madden primarily on the Wii, PS2 and PC, so the controls took a little bit of adjustment.  They really don’t seem to have changed that much, but still the game took quite a bit of adjustment.  At the same time, the game has become a lot more difficult to play. 

One of the touted features is that the game adjusts to your play: if you’re good at running, the game’s AI gives you a tougher run defense; if you suck at passing, easier pass defense, etc.  While theoretically this is a great idea, the implementation results in you just getting your butt kicked up and down the field.  There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of consistency between the game play.  Personally I’ve had too many instances where I have 1-2 moments of greatness, followed by a half-dozen moments of mediocrity.

While some of these new features are exciting, there are still many things that EA Sports has yet to improve, and even degrade in some instances.  Some I’ve noticed:

  • The In-game commentary is terrible.  Last year they had this ambiance created by the radio announcers that actually came off really well, it seemed strictly play-by-play. For some reason they went out and got a big name commentator – not John Madden, but Chris Collinsworth – but it was really half-assed.  Collinsworth never references any player by name, it’s always “The Quarterback, The Running Back”, and the statements are irrelevant and get old pretty quickly.
  • We still don’t have an easy way to update rosters.  Madden still wants you to connect into the X-box live lobby and start playing with someone else – never mind the fact that you’re not really interested in playing on-line yet, but would like to have Favre on the Jets or Eddie Royal not wearing #3 (although it was cool having John Lynch playing safety for the Broncos). Only then, will it begin to download the latest rosters.  I don’t understand how with the easy environment provided by the X-box Live Marketplace or in-game on-line interactions, EA still has this archaic method of downloading and applying roster updates.
  • Failure to understand 2 Runningback Systems – Over the decade, the NFL has evolved to the point where many times have a “Runningback by Committee” approach. I can easy rattle off the Broncos, the Saints, the Dolphins, the Panthers, the Cowboys, the Steelers – that’s only to name a few.  Despite this, Madden still doesn’t comprehend that these teams sub running-backs in an out on a whim, making it pretty challenging to duplicate this scenario in the game.  The closest they come is having a 3rd down running back, which doesn’t cut it.  You should be able to assign goal-line running backs, or better yet be able to line up 2 halfbacks in the backfield.

I still have a lot of game play to go, and more thoughts may develop on the game, but at this point I’m pretty disappointed with the ’09 differences from ’08.  I know when next August comes around I’ll probably be a tool and drop the $60 on the game yet again, but I would welcome major innovations (or even fixing these minor issues) with the next edition of the Madden franchise.

2-0(*?)

Jeromey Balderrama

NorvTurner

Two days after the Broncos huge win over the Chargers, and still everyone is talking about the “Refgate” show heard around the world.  In case you don’t follow the NFL/Broncos, head ref Ed Hochuli (who should be called “Ed Hurcules”) blew a call on the last drive. Peter King describes it best in his column:

Methodically, Cutler drove Denver downfield. On second-and-one from the Charger 17 with 77 seconds left, Cutler rolled right and the ball popped out of his right hand as he raised it to throw. He definitely was not in the throwing motion. The ball landed on the ground near the Chargers’ 10, and San Diego recovered. But wait. Hochuli had blown his whistle. The play was dead. When a quarterback loses the ball on a play like this, any whistle means the play is over, unlike if it happens to a running back or receiver; those balls can be recovered. Not this one. Denver retained possession. Two plays later, Cutler threw to second-round rookie Eddie Royal for a four-yard touchdown. Immediately, Shanahan held up two fingers.

I respect Peter King and his statement when he says in the same column “The Chargers were robbed”.  The refs did blow the call.  At the same time, the Refs weren’t the ones couldn’t stop Cutler from throwing the touchdown pass two plays later, and the Refs weren’t the ones that gave Eddie Royal the two point conversion as well.

Either way, I’ll take 2-0 and the Broncos Offense machine running on all cylinders.  The defense. well I hope they can step it up with the Saints come to town this weekend.  The Chargers have great weapons, and they were able to hold those weapons down in the first half.  However, blowing it in the second half has become all-too common for the Broncos defense.  Something tells me that this next Sunday will be another shoot-out.

A Pat? Say it ain’t so John Lynch!

Jeromey Balderrama

This is a few days old, but still noteworthy nonetheless.  A few weeks back I was saddened to hear that John Lynch asked for his release from the Broncos at the start of training camp, seeking a team where he could play a full-time role. Things remained quiet for a few weeks, but the news broke: The New England Patriots signed John Lynch.

John Lynch... Now a Patriot

As a Lynch fan, I’m happy he’s still playing in the NFL. He’s an amazing player, and nothing will take that away from him.  As a Broncos fan, I’m definitely disappointed and actually feel a little betrayed by John.

When the story of Lynch’s release request broke, it was said he left because the Broncos weren’t playing him full time:

From ESPN:

“[T]wo sources close to the situation said, because he is unhappy with his role. He has been working with the first-team defense in the first week of training camp but not in nickel and dime defensive packages. He has admitted that not playing significantly bothered him.”

I definitely could respect that, except for the analysis that came out about Lynch’s signing.

From John Clayton’s blog on ESPN:

“Lynch can fit into packages that would allow him to play 10, 15 or 20 plays a game. Belichick is the best at figuring out ways to use veterans and not wear them out. He did the same with Junior Seau, who enjoyed his Patriots experience so much that he’d love to come back.”

So Lynch left Denver because he was unhappy about not playing full-time in nickel and dime packages, and goes to a team that will play him 20 plays a game?  The knee-jerk in me wants to think that this was a hypocritical move and can’t help but feel a little betrayed.

At the same time, it very may well have been that Lynch watched the phone for full-time starter jobs and when it wasn’t ringing, decided to pursue other options.  I’m also a realist, and understand that the Patriots have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl next weekend than the Broncos do – but this isn’t Junior Seau: Lynch has a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay.  I didn’t want to see John Lynch go to a bottom-feeder team just to be able to start, but I hate to see him in a Patriot’s jersey. The only thing that would be worse would be Lynch in Raider Silver & Black.

Selfishly, I’m torn about what to do about my Lynch jersey.  He’s still an active player and I want to support him as the player, but I would also like to wear the jersey of a current Bronco if I can help it. I have no idea what I’m going to do.